Cocobod to store grains - Osafo Marfo

Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo has outlined government’s plans to solve post-harvest losses in the agricultural sector.

“COCOBOD’s storage facilities are almost half-empty and this can be used to store grains,” he said on Tuesday, February 14 at the Graphic/Stanbic Business Breakfast Meeting in Accra.

He indicated that government was committed to ensuring that the “warehousing system in the sector is solved”.

An expert in post-harvest loss management with the Africa Post-Harvest Losses Information System (APHLIS), Dr Bruno Tran, has estimated that Ghana loses about 318,514 tonnes of maize annually to post-harvest losses.

This is approximately 18 per cent of the country’s annual maize production with most losses occurring in the Northern Region with a total of 20,411 tonnes of maize being lost.

Upper East Region recorded over 13,000 tonnes of losses while the Volta, Ashanti, Eastern, and Western regions recorded losses of 8,983, 3,292, 2,660, and 2,360 tonnes respectively.

The Greater Accra and Upper West regions recorded losses of 2,237 and 778 respectively, with the Brong Ahafo and Central regions recording the least losses of 734 and 639, respectively.