Many Ghanaian farmers are falling into poverty due to post-harvest losses associated mainly with perishable produce, as it takes away about 30 per cent of their incomes.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), Ghana loses US$1.9 billion annually to post-harvest losses, mainly due to the lack of access to ready-post-harvest machinery and market, inadequate warehouses, bushfires, and poor roads.
Executive Director of Agrisolve, Elorm Goh, lamented the impact of post-harvest losses on smallholder farmers, depriving them of about 30 per cent of their income.
She said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a technical stakeholders’ breakfast meeting in Accra, on Wednesday, July 7, 2024.
The forum was organised by the Graphic Communications Group in partnership with the WFP, on the theme: “Transforming agriculture productivity in Ghana: enhancing smallholder farmers through reduction in post-harvest losses.”
“If you lose even one per cent of your produce, it’s a big deal, but in this case, farmers are losing up to 50 per cent due to post-harvest challenges,” Ms Goh said.
She called on the Government to lead interventions, including ensuring increased private sector participation in providing adequate infrastructure, including warehouses and machinery for processing to address post-harvest challenges.
“If we provide the roads, the right machinery for harvesting of produce, and more cold rooms for storage, farmers won’t be losing between 40 to 50 per cent of their toil, and that will definitely be income for them,” she said.
Ms Goh also encouraged financial institutions to be innovative in providing tailor-made solutions to agric value chain players to reduce post-harvest and increase the incomes of farmers.
Mr Steven Odartefio, Head of Food Systems at the World Food Programme, called for the creation of local government structures to enable agribusinesses get access to farmers.
“Farmers are losing their output, which has an impact on their pocket. Although they harvest more, they supply less because, by the time it gets to the end market, certain activities contribute to losses of the produce,” he said.
“We need the Government to handhold agribusinesses and introduce them to the farmers so they at their cost can transform the produce and impact the smallholder farmers.” Mr Odartefio said.
Madam Marbara Clemens, Country Director, World Food Programme, Ghana, said their partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, has targeted providing technical support and post-harvest equipment to some 100,000 smallholder farmers.
That was to reduce post-harvest losses and improve agricultural productivity through innovative post-harvest loss solutions through a network of aggregators.
She called for an intentional national effort to provide solutions to the agricultural value chain, from seed production to processing, which would make the sector attractive to the youth.
That, together with prioritising the patronage of Ghanaian produce, would go a long way in ensuring food security while improving the income and living conditions of smallholder farmers.