Workshop on West Africa market access grantee opens

A three-day workshop to review the progress of West Africa Market Access Grantee program to smallholder farmers is underway in Accra.

The workshop, organized by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), brings together 45 participants from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to facilitate open dialogue on the bottlenecks militating against the objectives of the program.

The objective of the program is to increase incomes and reduce poverty by promoting efficient, well-functioning markets that will create market linkages for millions of smallholder African farmers.

The workshop is on the theme: “Developing and Sharing Effective and Inclusive Market Interventions for Smallholder Farmers”.

Mr Clement Humado, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, opening the workshop said the theme was relevant as the country continues to invest resources in all inclusive agricultural transformation policies, laws, regulations to promote the welfare of smallholder farmers across Africa.

Mr Humado said Ghana had partnered AGRA over the past years in the implementation of practical programmes for smallholder farmers that fulfill the vision that Africa can feed itself and the world.

He said growth in the agriculture sector was critical to guarantee food security and is at least twice as effective in boosting rural incomes compared to growth in non-agricultural sectors including oil and gas.

Mrs Anne Mbaabu, Director, Market Access Program at AGRA in Africa said the programme involves two days of meeting and a day for a field visit to Volta Region to see irrigated fields and meet farmer groups and out growers.

She said a sustainable Green Revolution in Africa depends on well- functioning markets that provide reliable outlets for farm produce, and serve as dependable sources of affordable food.

Mrs Mbaabu said for many years, African countries have pushed for increased agricultural productivity without making an equal push for improving markets.

She said Africa's smallholder farmers have been unable to realize profitable returns on their investments due to high post-harvest losses, high transport costs, limited access to finance and market information, and inappropriate policies.

Mrs Mbaabu said to improve market opportunities for smallholder farmers; AGRA's Market Access Program is investing in reducing transaction costs by improving farm storage technologies, facilitating the development of warehouse receipt systems, commodity exchanges, and market information systems.

She said the program also promote an enabling environment by improving access to credit and removing inappropriate government policies that create major challenges for a variety of stakeholders across Africa.

Mrs Mbaabu said between 2009 and 2013, a total of 731,971 farmers were trained through the Market Access Program and that in the same period, commodities with total volume of 615,971 Metric tons, worth $219.6 were sold by farmers.

The AGRA was founded in 2006 through a partnership between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has presence in 17 African countries with the vision that Africa can feed itself and the world.