Corporate Affairs Manager of Blue Skies Holdings Ltd., Alistair Djimatey, has admonished farmers across the country to adopt innovation in their work to address challenges with marketing their produce after harvest.
Growers, particularly those in rural areas have overtime bemoaned the situation where their farm produce ultimately goes waste because buyers are not forthcoming and the purchase of their produce is delayed.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Annual New Year School and Conference Wednesday January 17, 2018, Mr. Djimatey said farmers need to be innovative enough to know which particular crop is in demand at a particular time and be informed by the demand of consumers in the growing of crops.
This he said, will prevent the situation where their yields though bountiful will rot away because there are but few consumers in need of that crop and yet a lot more farmers cultivating same at a specific point in time.
“Over the period, we do the same thing, we go to some villages, they say as for us, all we do is cassava. We need to be innovative, we need to find products that are market driven or have the demand on the market.
“Agriculture is a business, let’s look at the areas that will give us the profit we require and invest in those areas. Let’s not say, as for us all we’ve been doing is maize so even if your land can do something else that will give you a higher margin, you’ll continue to do maize because that’s your culture,” he said.
The New Year School and Conference is organized annually at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), to address pertinent issues regarding development in the country. This year’s theme; ‘Job Creation for accelerated National Development: The role of the private sector focuses on addressing major issues in the various sectors as regards job creation and employment in the country.
