Workshop to dialogue on post-harvest loses opens

The Economy of Ghana Network (EGN) of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, on Thursday organised a workshop to dialogue on managing post-harvest losses to ensure food security.

The aim was to share with different stakeholders in the agricultural value chain the experiences and lessons of the last decade concerning waste and spoilage technologies, and how stakeholders had been mobilising funds to support their activities.

The workshop, which was on the theme: “Innovative Financing in Waste and Spoilage Technologies in Ghana: A decade in Existence,” attracted both experts and farmers from the agricultural sub-sector, academia, policy makers, students and the media.

Dr Irene S. Egyir, a Senior Lecturer at the Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Department of the University of Ghana, said post-harvest losses (waste and spoilage) constituted a major drain on food production and food security in Africa.

She attributed food wastage in Africa to the lack of knowledge and adequate information to farmers on use of current technologies to enhance production and storage of their produce, and called on government to put in place structures that would support farmers and minimise these losses and wastage.

Dr Egyir said wastage was not a good sign as it led to waste of funds and intensified health conditions such as malnutrition and stunted growth in children.

She said it was for this reason that many organisations, both public and private, had sought to find effective solutions to the problem through innovative financing of the development and management of simple technologies for managing those loses.

Dr Egyir said post-harvest losses interventions that had been suggested sought to build the capacity of staple food value chain actors to reduce waste and spoilage to minimal levels in order to enhance household income, food security and nutrition.

She identified challenges such as access to funding, affordability of the technologies, adaptation of those technologies and lack of awareness of their existence as major setbacks to improving Ghana’s agricultural sector.

She advised farmers and young entrepreneurs to focus on most promising technologies, practice innovative financing, and urged government to train local manufacturers of silos.

Mr J.K Boamah, Director of Agricultural Engineering Service Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in a speech read for him, said the Ministry had secured funding from various sources to acquire machinery and technologies such as drying , processing and storage facilities for onward sale to farmers under subsidy.

He said in order for Ghana to make any meaningful headway to minimise post-harvest loses, it was important that the Ministry of Agriculture, the private sector and academia worked together to address the problem of policy, funding, and skill development in the use of improved technology.

These stakeholders should also work to enhance research and storage facilities to minimise the losses, he said.

Dr Robert Darko Osei, Co-ordinator of the EGN, said it was a Country Level Knowledge Network with some characteristics of a civil society organisation and embraced all persons with adequate training and interest in discussing issues relevant to the proper management of the economy of Ghana and the country’s socio-economic development.

The network, he said, provided a platform for disseminating research findings and discussing their policy relevance.