Agrihouse Foundation, the organizers of the now popular Annual Pre-Harvest Conference and Exhibition event in the Northern Region, has announced the date of this year’s edition of the event to be held from 7th – 8th October 2020 at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, Tamale.
Themed “Covid-19 And Beyond: Solutions for Agricultural Transformation”, this year’s event happens to be the 10th-anniversary edition of the industry flagship event which had its first outing in Tamale in the year 2010.
In a press release issued in Accra, Agrihouse Foundation stated that owing to the importance of the now ten years old event, and it’s enormous value to the agricultural sector in Ghana, Agrihouse Foundation is bracing all Covid-19 instanced challenges to ensure that the Pre-Harvest Conference and Exhibition’s developmental role established in the past ten years would not be broken. “This is very important to us and to the agricultural sector that has benefited so much from the event that it has become part of the sector’s growth factor,” the Executive Director, Ms. Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa was quoted as saying.
This year, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the European Union, Yara Ghana, Ecobank, Northern Regional Coordinating Council, and other private and international development organizations are partnering Agrihouse Foundation to bring this year’s edition to its growing beneficiaries of farmers – especially smallholder farmers, buyers, processors, transporters, input dealers, equipment dealers, financial institutions, telecom companies, and policymakers.
“This partnership has, over the years, provided long term market development opportunities for the less privileged farmers in the northern part of the country, while still strengthening the capacity of farmer-based organizations and aggregators of grains, thus enabling them to play a key role as agricultural market actors in Ghana,” Ms. Akosa expatiated.
According to Agrihouse Foundation, the event which had, before now, been held for 3 days, for the most part of its ten years’ existence will, this year, be held for 2 days in consideration of the Covid-19 pandemic and for the effective management of the safety protocols as demanded by the government and the World Health Organization.
The usual attendance to this event includes farmers, traders, commodity brokers, input companies, machinery and equipment providers, transporters, financial institutions, ICT, Innovators, Poultry and Livestock companies and individual farmers, packaging, and processing companies, development practitioners, and government agencies, among others.
The Annual Pre-Harvest Conference and Exhibition event have, over the years, made significant contributions towards satisfying the nation’s yearning to accelerate the transformation of agribusiness in Northern Ghana. It has nurtured a sustained drive by agro-processors to source raw materials locally; inspired a growing band of agribusiness entrepreneurs; continues to promote dialogue and the forging of business partnerships amongst value chain actors – commodity buyers and farmers, financial institutions, and Telecom Companies.
To ensure its characteristic perfect organising quality, a Planning Committee has been inaugurated. The Committee composed of some of the sector’s best stakeholders were tasked to produce a 2020 edition of the Pre-Harvest event that sets another milestone in the success annals of the international agricultural show.
Led by Kwame Okyere of Yara Ghana, the Planning Committee includes Kojo Mensah Amissah, SKT Aero Shutter; Sandra Tagoe, Flour Mills of Ghana Ltd.; Ashitso Ruth Adashie, Identity X; Christel Tshikudi, USAID FTF ADVANCE; Cecil Osei, USAID FTF ADVANCE; and Jason Amoo, USAID FTF ADVANCE.
Other notable members are Simone Fugar, Esoko Ghana; Haidar Malhas, Interplast Ghana; Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Agrihouse Foundation; Michael Opuni-Frimpong, Agrihouse Foundation; and Jemima Agyemang, Agrihouse Foundation.
Started in October 2010 in Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana by the USAID ADVANCE, the Annual Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibitions and Conference event continues to be a dynamic platform for enhancing the capacity of smallholder farmers, providing linkages for commodity buyers and farmers, whiles creating a unique platform for establishing business relationships and accessing markets for the harvest of good farm yields.
The Pre-harvest event was originally initiated and organized by the USAID ADVANCE. However, in 2017, in order to scale up and sustain the event, USAID ADVANCE handed over the organization of the event to a Ghanaian-owned Agrihouse Foundation, with World Food Program then, as the project’s organizing Partner.
Since its inception, the nation’s top agricultural event has become a major interventional and leading agribusiness event on the Ghanaian agricultural calendar; and it has served as a stimulating platform for improving market linkages, training, exhibitions, and expanding opportunities.
As Agrihouse Foundation kicks off the event’s 10th Anniversary celebration, it gratefully recognizes and appreciates the faithful partnership and support of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the European Union, Yara Ghana, and Ecobank.
