WORLD VISION EU LEAN PROJECT SUPPORTS LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT BOARDS (LMBs) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 12TH ANNUAL PRE-HARVEST AGRIBUSINESS CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

0244198031

Bunyanso Farms Limited, a private sector player in the World Vision EU LEAN project, participated in the Pre-harvest Agribusiness and exhibition conference held in the Alhaji Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale, from 25th-27th October, 2022. The conference among others sought to transform agriculture in Northern Ghana and provide long term market development opportunities for less privileged farmers within the project zone (ie West Gonja Municipal and Kassena- Nankana West District). 

The Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN), is a 4-year project funded by the European Union, with an overall objective of ensuring the conservation of the biodiversity; of building climate resilience; to improve livelihoods of small-scale farmers and to ultimately reduce emissions from land-use changes across Ghana. As part of the architecture to execute this project, three projects landscapes have been earmarked across Ghana with three lead organizations to serve as the special purpose vehicles in the execution. The following are the three project landscapes and their respective lead organizations:

1. High Forest Zone which covers the Western North Region is led by Rainforest Alliance as the lead organization. 

2. Guinea and Sudan Savannah Ecological Zones covers Savannah region and Upper East region with World Vision Ghana as the lead organizations, and

3. Forest-Savannah transition zone, which covers Ashanti and Bono East regions and is being led by Tropenbos Ghana and Ecocare Ghana. 

The World Vision EU LEAN project, sponsored the participation of Bunyanso Farms Limited, the West Gonja Landscape Management Board and the Kassena- Nankana West Landscape Management Board in this year’s pre-harvest conference, as part of its core objective to improve livelihoods of small-scale farmers. The three days pre-harvest conference offered participants including Bunyanso Farms Limited, a private sector player, a platform to participate in the conference and exhibition of their products. The theme of the conference was, “connecting the unconnected; the farmer-the market and the buyer.” 

The pre-harvest conference was initiated under the Phase 1 of the USAID’s ADVANCE project in 2011 as a market linkage activity for farmers and buyers. This year’s conference at the Alhaji Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, offered smallholder farmers and other actors across the agricultural market, to among others build their capacity, networking and building business relationships among farmer-based organizations, and offered an expanded market base to exhibit and market their products. This annual pre-harvest event has grown over the years to become a leading market linkage platform in Ghana and has indeed, achieved its overall objective of creating markets and linking farmers to buyers. Agrihouse Foundation is the executing agency with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, USAID and Northern Development Authority as partners. 

The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Bunyanso Farms Limited, who also doubles as the General Secretary of West Gonja Landscapes Management Board of World Vision EU LEAN project, Mr Sumani Iddrisu, led 17 participants from the Guinea and Sudan Savannah Ecological Zone, thus—Savannah Region and Upper East Region, to this year’s conference and exhibition. Two (2) of the participants were from Kassena - Nankana West Landscape Management Board while fifteen (15) from the West Gonja Landscape Management Board and Bunyanso Farms beneficiaries of the project. Among the products exhibited by these participants included: Shea butter processors, beekeeping, cashew, Soyabean, chilly pepper, Onions and sheanuts farmers exhibitors, . The World Vision EU LEAN project has pledged to sponsor Bunyanso Farms Limited to participate in the annual pre-harvest conference up to 2024. 

There have been enormous impact that the participants have testified to. Among which are:

1. As smallholder farmers and value chain actors, the capacity building sessions and practical field demonstrations, have impacted enormously on the skills set, new production techniques to improve farm yields, value-addition on products and new technologies for future exploitation.

2. The pre-harvest conference also created a bigger platform for participants to also exhibit and market their farm produce, sign business deals and build networks that will engineer sustainable development within the value chain.

3. The farmer-to-farmer apprenticeship program offered participants an opportunity to have an interface with experts on the field and to learn about the use of farm equipment and machinery, the use of which will improve on their productivity and expand their market base. 

The 3-days event was programmed as follows:

Day 1: Opening ceremony and commodity breakout sessions. This saw various speakers and actors speaking on various topics and others allied activities.  

Day 2: Capacity building sessions and farmer-to-farmer apprenticeship with program. This also saw the exhibition of various products, also farmer-buyer matchmaking sessions, apprenticeship sessions among others.

Day 3: Call to action and closing ceremony. This session created a platform for panel discussions among key players like Yara Ghana, GIZ MOAP NW/REACH and other traditional and political actors within the Tamale Metropolis. This sessions also aggregated all topics discussed and sets out a learning curve and a road map for stakeholders and players within the sector to get the unconnected to connected. 

The 17 Participants who represented the West Gonja Landscape Management Board, the Kassena- Nankana West Management Board and Bunyanso Farms Limited were given certificates of participation at the end of the third day.