Ghana Society of Agribusiness Scientists to reshape agribusiness research and innovation for impact

Agribusiness experts have renewed their commitment to lead research, education, and innovation and advance policy options that would enhance the economic impact of Ghana’s agrifood sector.

Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Society of Agribusiness Scientists (GSAS) in Kumasi on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, its founding president, Professor Richard Kwasi Bannor, intimated that the society shall contribute to agripreneurship promotion, agribusiness MSME development and sustainability, and influence agriculture and food systems policies in Ghana and beyond.

According to him, the government’s policies on developing agriculture as a business and the overwhelming support it receives from development partners and the private sector highlight the importance and growing need for agribusiness expertise.

He, however, bemoaned that the agribusiness discipline has seen a lot of “encroachment and dilution, which has affected curriculum development and the employment of skilled professionals into roles that require agribusiness expertise, but agribusiness is a unique field that demands unique knowledge and skills to practice and cannot be regarded as a wholesale area that anyone can claim to be part of without having the necessary background, qualifications, and knowledge.”

Professor Bannor was optimistic that the birth of the GSAS is a new beginning that will stimulate vigorous collaboration among academia, industry, and government to fix these anomalies and develop the contours of the agribusiness ecosystem in Ghana.

He encouraged the industry to collaborate more with academics, recognize the unique skills of agribusiness graduates, and place them in roles that fit their expertise, but not as appendages of related fields that do not have the same training objectives and outcomes as the agribusiness discipline.

In his opening remarks, Professor Fred Nimoh, acting head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, and Extension of the KNUST, who represented the Provost of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources as the chairman for the launch, said, “Along the chain, we should be able to think through and come out with innovations and address the challenges, and we all believe we’re going to experience a drastic change.”

Delivering a goodwill message, Board Member of IFAMA, Professor Johan Van Rooyen, called for joint efforts to achieve food security, adding that agribusiness is key to unlocking Africa’s agriculture potential.

The Executive Director of Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC) Ghana, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, lauded the formation of the GSAS as a great initiative that would strengthen agribusiness research and education.

The virtual launch was attended by scholars from teaching, research, and industry practitioners and students, with high-level representation and goodwill messages from the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA), Ghana Association of Agricultural Economists (GAAE), Peasant Farmers’ Association (PFA), and Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC) Ghana.