Agrihouse Foundation in partnership with USAID ADVANCE, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and other major stakeholders in the agriculture value chain is set to organize the 9th Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference in Tamale on the theme “Market accessibility: The Structure and Sustainable Pathway”.
The Pre-harvest conference which will come off at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale, Northern Region, from September 25th -27th, 2019 is aimed at serving as a stimulating platform for training and creating increased stakeholder linkages, exhibition and expanded opportunities for farmers and companies in the agric value chain.
The conference is set to build on the knowledge base and capacity of farmers and government agencies in order to make informed policy decisions and improve the livelihood of farmers in the rural areas. Also, the annual Pre-harvest conference will offer key stakeholders the opportunity to further unlock the Ghanaian Agricultural marketing sector while facilitating agricultural entrepreneurship among agribusiness value chain actors including women.
At a meet the press conference in Accra on Wednesday, Major partners of the Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference including Yara Ghana, Kosmos Energy and Ecobank expressed their expectations and also revealed their reasons for sponsoring the biggest agribusiness conference in Ghana.
Mr. Dankwah Addo Yobo, the West Africa Regional Director of Yara International, the lead sponsor of the conference believes a sponsorship from Yara will bring together actors in the value chain to network, build partnerships and help link farmers to uptakers and aggregators.
Speaking on the reason for sponsoring the conference, Mr. George Sarpong, the Director of Corporate Affairs at Kosmos Energy said the conference is aligned to the vision of Kosmos Innovation Center to solve challenges within the agricultural sector through collaboration. He further stated that Kosmos Innovation Center expects to take advantage of business to business collaboration, acquire new customer base to create opportunity for expansion and also to network and share ideas to promote innovation in agriculture.
Also Mr Kingsley Adofo Addo, the head of SME at Ecobank Ghana, said Ecobank, on a broader level “wants to see the objective of the event achieved, market accessed, structured businesses and sustainable growth.”
The Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Abena Nana Akyaa Akosa, speaking to the press stated that they are excited about the impact the conference has had on the Agric value chain over the years. “It stated with 200 participants and some fee exhibitors and 9 years down the lane, we have over 3000 participants with over 100 exhibitors. This goes to show the growth of the event, the impact of the event.” She further stated that the platform supports to reduce post-harvest losses as well as open up markets for farmers to be trained and close deals.
Agrihouse Foundation is a nongovernmental agricultural social impact, capacity building innovation and project management organization with a special focus on changing the perception and consciously shaping the conversation on agriculture through the promotion of people-impact initiatives and programs for students, women, farmers, farming associations, agribusinesses and the entire actors within the value chain.
