Bawumia To Open 2018 Pre-Harvest Exhibition And Conference

Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia will on Wednesday open the 2018 Pre-Harvest exhibition and conference, which seeks to accelerate the transformation of agribusiness in Northern Ghana at Tamale in the Northern Region.

The annual programme, which is the eighth in the series, is on the theme: 'Agribusiness in Northern Ghana, the future starts now.'

The annual agricultural showpiece organised by, Agrihouse Foundation, in partnership with the World Food Programme, Ministry of Food and Agriculture(MOFA), Northern Regional Coordinating Council and the Northern Development Authority, would bring together stakeholders within and without the local agricultural sector to interact, share expertise and strike business partnerships.

Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, the Team Lead for Agrihouse Foundation, organisers of the event in an interview said the three-day programme was expected to attract 2000 participants in the agri-business value chain such as farmers, buyers, processors, transporters, input dealers, equipment dealers, financial institutions, telecom companies and policy makers.

She said the programme arguably was the single biggest gathering of agric-industry firms on a unique platform designed to facilitate knowledge exchange and business development.

Explaining the event structure, Ms Akosa said the programme would have panel discussions on the government's Planting for Food & Jobs, and the role of the youth in improving the fortunes of agriculture to be hosted by Agritech.

She said the University for Development Studies (UDS) would undertake an assessment of the Planting for Food and Jobs implementation, lessons learnt and the way forward, which would be followed by a panel discussion on the topic with discussants from MoFA, UDS, Yara Ghana, USAID ADVANCE and farmers.

'The advent of new technologies and its impact on farmers' productivity will be a key feature of a panel discussion at the Pre-harvest event under the Agri-tech workshop and it will showcase ideas like Agriculture incubation, a soil testing van, Aflasafe and Ripping technologies, amongst others. Participating institutions in this session will be Kosmos Energy, OCP, IITA and John Deere,' she said.

Ms Akosa indicated there would be additional sessions including Custom & Contract Farming and Farming with Purpose to be led by the World Food Programme, Seed Quality by Nastag, RMG, Dizengoff and MoFA Seed Inspection Unit; Agric Financing led by Ecobank, Mel Consulting, GIPC and GEPA.

She said a Field Demo session was expected with Green Housing by Dizengoff, Corn Sheller by Motorking, Fertiliser Application and Mechanisation by Yara Ghana and John Deere respectively.

Sponsors for the three-day exhibition include Yara Ghana, Mel Consulting, Ecobank, Kosmos Energy, Interplast Limited, Motor King, Hatoum Trading, LK International, RMG, Dizengoff, and Tata John Deere.