body-container-line-1
22.10.2008 Business & Finance

Workshop for stakeholders in vegetable farming ends

22.10.2008 LISTEN
By gna

A two-day workshop for stakeholders along the vegetable export chain has ended at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region with a call on players to come out with competitive strategies to meet international standards.

The workshop, organized by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) for 25 participants in the vegetable export value chain was to develop action, verify preliminary findings, identify opportunities, constraints and priorities to transform agriculture.

Mr Emmanuel Dorman, Senior Technical Assistant, MiDA, said every project under MiDA's agricultural programme would be done in partnership with all farms and firms to realize the potential of Ghana's agribusiness sector.

He said: “Our goal must be the transformation of the agriculture sector in key crops. Only transformation will bring about growth of the sector.”

Mr Dorman said there was need to inject massive capital and good application of modern technology to provide quality foods for both local and international market.

“The resources we and other development partners bring must serve the priorities of these sectors.”

It is expected that in the next five years, Ghana's vegetable exports would reach 10,000 tons per annum and at consistent volumes that meet international standards.

Industry players have identified access to adequate finance, inadequate infrastructure, information gap, access to quality planting materials as some challenges of the industry.

They urged farmer-based organizations to educate members on good farming practices, post-harvest storage and techniques to acquire loans from the banks.

MiDA is responsible for implementing and managing the Millennium Challenge Account to accelerate economic growth and poverty reduction.

body-container-line