Two private organisations, the Mastercard Foundation and IDH have launched an initiative to transform the grains sector the country. The inclusive and economically viable grain-supply chain project, dubbed: “Grains for growth”, will offer employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to the youth.
The three-and-a-half-year programme will partner small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in northern Ghana, including off-takers and other supply chain actors, to create 103,000 work opportunities across the maize, rice, millet, fonio and sorghum supply chains.
It will also support the inclusion of 20,000 smallholder farmers through optimised sourcing and service delivery structures to increase incomes. The production of fonio has become limited to the Saboba-Chereponi and the Zabzugu-Tatale districts in the Northern Region. The crop, which has good nutrition quality attractive flavour and expands well, is mainly popular among the Anufo, Bassare, Kabre and Konkomba people.
Pilot
At the launch of the programme in Accra, the Director of Inclusive Business Development at IDH, Kebba Colley, said the pilot phase had witnessed the transformation of local SMEs and farmers into competitive businesses that met global standards.
He said the farmers also attracted competitive prices for their produce, while creating sustainable jobs for the youth.
“IDH is delighted to extend our work to the grains sector. We look forward to learning and improving the grains sector through this partnership with the Mastercard Foundation; Mr Colley said.
The grains for growth programme was part of IDH’s Grown Sustainably in Africa (GSA) programme, under which multinationals, including Nestle, Unilever, Dutch State Mines, Africa Improved Foods and Dangote, incorporated smallholder farmers and SMEs into their supply chains.
It is done through hands-on capacity building, business development support and facilitation of market linkages.
The programme also aligns with Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy in Ghana, which focuses on deepening efforts in the agricultural and agribusiness sector to unlock job opportunities for the youth.
Potential
The Ghana Country Head of the Mastercard Foundation, Rosy Fynn, said the grains value chain had enormous potential to unlock growth, improve the livelihoods of value chain operators and catalyse work opportunities for the youth.
“By building the capacity of value chain actors, providing ready access to markets through off-taker arrangements and access to affordable financial services, we are collectively enabling smallholder farmers and SMEs to scale up and lead the transformation of the sector to become a major contributor to Ghana’s economic growth,” she added.
Ms Fynn said the programme would also enable SMEs to improve their operational capacity, meet the quality and procurement standards of multinationals and also optimise smallholder farmers’ sourcing and service delivery structures.
Grains production
Grains production in northern Ghana is largely characterised by informal supply chains. The actors have limited access to affordable financing solutions, mechanised services and quality agro inputs.
The constraints negatively affect the quality and volumes of grain production and the ability of SMEs in the value chain to attract and maintain premium-paying buyers, resulting in limited commercial investments.
With increasing local demand for grains, a rising import dependency and local raw-material sourcing interests, there is a significant opportunity for the grains sector to facilitate economic growth and create social impact through job creation and the improvement of the livelihoods of farmers.
Source: Daily Graphic