Boost for maize farmers in Ghana
8 Oct 2011
Better market access means higher incomes for 10,000 farmers
Concern Universal Ghana are helping 10,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana with an innovative, three-year project to help reduce postharvest losses and increase their incomes.
Food insecurity is a problem faced by people throughout Ghana, particularly in the Northern regions where Concern Universal is based and works. Yet Ghanaian farmers lose up to half of all fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers and about a quarter of cereals and legumes that are harvested every year. This is largely down to inadequate post harvest management, particularly of perishable produce.
Concern Universal has successfully secured a grant of close to three quarters of a million dollars from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to develop market access and post harvest services for smallholder maize farmers in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana.
We will be working with maize farmers to reduce poverty by improving their ability to work together to better manage their produce post harvest. By enhancing their access to postharvest services and markets, farmers will earn a decent income and increase their production beyond subsistence levels.
The project is an exciting cross-sector initiative that will work with civil society (Practical Care International), farmers groups (Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana), the private sector (post harvest service providers such as Sahel Grain), and the government (Ministry of Food and Agriculture, MOFA and Ghana Grain Council).
The long term impact of the project will be greater food security, due to well-functioning and self-sustaining farmer based organizations (FBOs), improved quality of maize produced by smallholder farmers and increased volumes and value of sales.
