body-container-line-1

Agric-House Foundation begins 3-day pre-harvest event in Tamale

By brahim Nurudeen
Regional News Agric-House Foundation begins 3-day pre-harvest event in Tamale
OCT 20, 2021 LISTEN

Agric-House Foundation has opened its 11th Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference in Tamale yesterday Tuesday at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium.

This year's event as usual brought together several exhibitors including banks, farmers, buyers and other agribusinesses.

Executive Director of the Agric-House Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa at the opening ceremony said the event since its inception has exposed those in the agribusiness to several opportunities and impacted their lives as well.

She mentioned that the exhibitors sell their products at affordable prices at the various stands, urging the to take advantage of the opportunities at the event to build new contacts and strike deals on farm machinery, fertilizers and seeds, among others.

Touching on this year's event, she noted that important and educative sessions have been outlined for participants which include Exhibitions, Commodity Breakout Session; Farmer-Buyer Matchmaking Dialogues; Showcasing Successful Agribusiness Modules; the Gender Workshop; Agri-Youth Forum and Development Partners Panel Conversations.

This she said will help participants acquire more knowledge and insight about agribusiness.

According to her, the exhibition stands are open to the public so the public is free to visit and interact with the owners of the agribusinesses.

"As I summarize, I would like to reiterate that in 2018, the Agribusiness Conference won the Agribusiness event of the Year Award for helping to promotes business partnerships among value chain actors, especially farmers, buyers, processors, transporters, input dealers, equipment dealers, financial institutions, telecom companies and policy makers.

"In 2019, over 70 business deals were made during the Exhibition; and more than GHS232, 420,745 of agri products and equipment were sold and bought," she posited.

She called for the togetherness of both private and public stakeholders to scale up value chain initiatives for the continuous growth and transformation of market systems for Agri-foods.

According to her, the platform has also become an avenue that pools together the largest number of agricultural value chain actors and agribusinesses in Ghana.

Adding that, the event has helped farmers to access new market opportunities, increase their knowledge and improve their higher yields annually." A look around you here today at this gathering, and in the next two days will surely attest to this fact.

"Let's work together to support the Preharvest event platform. That is the only practical way of ensuring that, ultimately, the desired growth and transformation of Ghana’s Northern Regions’ agricultural sector would be achieved.

"Consistent and productive for all these years, by all standards, Agrihouse Foundation and the Annual Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference have won our trust and deserve all the support they need, especially from the private sector and our development partners," she emphasised.

Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shaibu, the Northern Regional Minister on his part thanked the Chief of Banvum-Lana, Nyab Mahama Abdullahi for donating land to the Agrihouse Foundation for the enhancement of its work, adding that the generosity showed by the chief is worthy of emulation.

He advised farmers to use the event to meet, discuss and plan ahead of the season, interact and transact business with input dealers and buyers of farm produce.

The Chief of Banvum, Nyeb Mahama Abdullahi charged the Ministry of Agriculture to effectively collaborate and support to sustain the annual conference for farmers.

According to him, over the last ten years, the Pre-harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference has become one of the key events that have supported the growth and development of agriculture in Northern Ghana.

He enumerated that the event is consistent, growing strong each year with many linking up with agro input dealers, agricultural machinery and equipment dealers, aggregators and farm produce buyers.

"I can confidently and unequivocally state that the Pre-Harvest Conference and Exhibition is one of the leading if not the leading agricultural conferences and market platforms in Ghana.

"For and on behalf of my fellow farmers, we extend our gratitude to the USAID/ADVANCE project and of course to the Government and people of the United States of America for initiating and supporting the implementation of this platform for farmers," he stated.

The theme for this year's event is "Working Together to Improve Market Channels for Agri-foods Beyond the Pandemic."

body-container-line