Yara Ghana Limited, the food nutrition solutions provider, continues to boost Ghana’s agricultural sector with its award-wining fertilizers.
The company’s impact is especially felt by farmers in the cocoa, cereal and vegetable sectors, three key subsectors of Ghana’s agricultural sector. Many of Ghana’s agric industry is dominated by smallholder farmers and many of whom would experience low yields without the application of fertilizers and other nutrition-boosting products.
Yara Ghana Limited was established in 2007 but the parent company – Yara International- with its headquarters in the USA, operates in over 150 countries worldwide. In just a little over a decade of operations, the company which has one of its objectives as “Responsibly feed the world and protect the planet”, boasts a significant market share in the local fertilizer market, helping to contribute to increased yields and profitability.

Yara’s success and significance to the farming community can be traced to the fact that under the direction of its network of agronomists, Yara has initiated and undertaken a number of programmes to enable small holder farmers achieve the best results. These the company does through farmer trainings, retailer trainings, crop clinics, demonstrations farms, field days, radio programmes with opportunity for farmers to call in with their queries.
Yara started with a staff of five (5) and dues to its growth and acceptance by the agric value chain in the country, its direct staff is now 40. Yara, with its locations in Accra, Tema and Tamale, has also been increasing its supply of fertilizers to the market, and improving access to fertilizers by farmers through a wider distribution network of over 300 distributors and retailers across the country. This in turn also provides indirect employment to several Ghanaians.

Crop Clinics
Yara Ghana has also been offering technical support for farmers through its Crop Clinics. Along with the company’s distribution and retail partners, the Crop Clinics and its training programmes reache thousands of farmers every year. Using the Crop Nutrition Concept, it focuses on crop knowledge, portfolio combinations and application competence, in order to help Ghanaian farmers optimize profitability in a sustainable manner.
Yara Ghana undertakes scientific trials aimed at evolving cost effective crop nutrition solutions and programmes for Ghanaian farmers.
In terms of capacity building for farmers and dealers, it provides training and knowledge for farmers, Agricultural Extension Officers as well as dealers in agro-inputs. The focus among others is on the right application of fertilizers: right nutrients, right time and right place. In addition, it offers technical support for farmers on Yara Crop Nutrition approach, focusing on crop knowledge, portfolio combinations and application competence, in order to help Ghanaian farmers optimize profitability in a sustainable manner.

The three northerly regions
The fertilizer market leader is very active in the three regions of Ghana’s north, a geographical region which although is endowed with agricultural production capacity, still lags behind the southern part of the country in terms of development.
Yara has a well-established office in Tamale to provide close support for its staff in the zone including a main warehouse in Tamale and six consignment warehouses across the zone. The northern zone is a major breadbasket for the country’s food production especially in cereals and other food crops and forms a key part of Yara Ghana’s operations.
The company is keen in supporting the zone to improve food crop production in a profitable and sustainable way. Consequently, Yara Ghana has been offering sustainable crop nutrition solutions for farmers in Northern Ghana, supporting increased farmer productivity and profitability through Constructive Engagement with stakeholders, Efficient Knowledge sharing to deliver solutions to farmers an by increasing access to quality crop nutrition products.
In partnership with the United States Agency for International Development-ADVANCE Project, Yara Ghana supports over 130 demonstration farms on best practices in the three Northern Regions. Yara also supports the annual Farmers Day awards in Ghana and many of its farmers using the company’s products have gone on to win awards at the event.

Pre-Harvest Agri-business Exhibition & Conference
As a demonstration of its continuous commitment to the agric sector, Yara Ghana has provided financial sponsorship package to Agrihouse Foundation, the organisers of the Pre-Harvest Agri-business Exhibition & Conference. The 8th edition of the Pre-harvest event will take place this year from the 3rd-5th October at the Aliu Mahama Stadium in Tamale. The exhibition and conference will feature over 2,000 exhibitors and businesses across the agricultural value chain.
In a company statement, Yara Ghana said of the event: “We are hoping to see a lot of farmers and other players in the value chain attending this event. We are also expecting that a lot of networking and partnerships will be built and linkages established that will help further strengthen the agricultural value chain and enhance profitability among the various actors.”
The statement continued “We also expect to see an exciting exhibition that will showcase new and improved technologies in the sector that will help modernize agricultural practice in Ghana and make it attractive and profitable.”
“Yara as a leading player in the fertilizer industry believes in building partnerships and collaborations that will help strengthen the entire agricultural value chain. This is demonstrated by our collaboration with the USAID/ADVANCE on their project demos covering over 200 sites,” the company added.
The Pre-harvest event which had previously been handled by the USAID/ADVANCE is one such event that brings together actors in the value chain to network, build partnerships and help link farmers to up takers and aggregators and Yara believes its sponsorship of this event will help enhance and promote this objective. It is for this reason that Yara has been supporting the Pre-Harvest event over the past three years.

The success of the local agriculture industry is heavily reliant on the input of industry firms who combine innovation and excellence to great effect.
Through the delivery of cutting-edge services that are tailored to fit the peculiar challenges of the local agric industry, some firms have cemented their place as conspicuous allies of Ghanaian agriculture.
Besides quality products and relevant service delivery, these firms demonstrate admirable responsibility by consistently supporting the industry through ventures that are set-up to serve Corporate Social Responsibility ends.
One of such stand-out firm is YARA Ghana Limited. Yara is a world –renowned firm versed in the production and distribution of mineral fertilizer.
Since venturing into Ghana over a decade ago, Yara has been importing and supplying high quality products for various crop areas such as cereals, vegetables, cocoa, etc.
The company has an expansive nationwide distribution network, which affords her the leverage of offering technical support for farmers signed onto its Yara “Crop Nutrition solutions” initiative.
With a central goal that is hinged on a desire to be a global leader in sustainable agriculture and environmental solutions, the company operates with a wider pool of organizational aspirations, which include being environmentally responsible, and responding to major global challenges, particularly those that directly affect the companies farmer-clients.
As a multinational firm, Yara’s committed to international operational principles is demonstrated by the firms support for the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Companies, the UN Declaration on Human Rights and the OECD Conventions on Combating Bribery.

Commitment to Innovation
Yara’s commitment to entrenching innovation in the local agric sector is laudable. In-fact the company has supported nearly every worthwhile initiative that has sought to place farmers on a better footing since it began operations a decade ago. Yara is always at the fore-front of championing initiatives that have proven vital to the growth and development of agriculture in Ghana.
Besides its partnership efforts, Yara is noted for outdooring brilliant agric concepts of its own that have shown great worth in the crusade to position the agric sector for greatness.
In the last ten years, Yara has been at the fore-front of revolutionizing the fertilizer industry in Ghana by introducing its Crop Nutrition Concept which focuses on crop knowledge, portfolio combinations and application competence. These three pillars are key in helping Ghanaian farmers optimize profitability in a sustainable manner instead of the blanket application of fertilizers which had hitherto been the practice.
According to the firms MD, Mr Danquah Addo-Yobo, “Yara Ghana introduced into the Ghanaian agricultural space, crop specific nutrient solutions that ensured that farmers are able to optimize the use of Yara fertilizer to gain healthier and higher yields in an environmentally sustainable way.”
“We are proud of our achievements and contributions to the agricultural sector in Ghana especially so when we hear the testimonies of farmers including several national award winners who have succeeded in their farming by using our crop nutrition solutions.”
The MD said the company has been supporting women in agriculture and has collaborated with agriculture units of some universities – notably the University of Development Studies in the North, and the University of Ghana, Legon, and also created the platform and supported farmer associations.
“Yara Ghana has been making the results of its yearly research work done together with key agricultural research institutes like Crop Research Institute (CRI), Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) available to other stakeholders in the agricultural value chain through its yearly publication of results of its Trials and Demonstrations,” he said, adding “the results from these research activities have also enabled Yara Ghana to recommend and make available the best quality fertilizer solutions targeted at specific crops as well as provide training for farmers, retailers and distributors on best practices towards enhancing the profitability of the farmer and the value chain.”

Two companies, RMG and Motor King Limited have joined the list of companies providing financial and logistical supports to the 8^th Annual Pre-harvest Exhibition and Conference..

Enumerating its business activities, the Marketing Manager, Dela Nyarko, said RMG, imports agro inputs such as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides as well as high yielding hybrid seeds, mostly vegetables and maize. He noted that most of the maize variety from RMG is used in the three northern regions of Ghana and the Afram Plains. Same varieties have been adopted for use in the government’s ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ Programme In addition, the company provides technical and agronomic training for farmers across the country, working with associations such as Masara among others.

 

Kenneth Nii-Addy, Chief Technical Officer of RMG said the company has over the years developed concrete solutions to agriculture and farmer challenges across the globe, key among which is the success in finding a solution to the fall army worm invasion which threatened the food security of the entire nation some months back.  “RMG is pleased to say that a solution called ‘Belt Expert’ has finally been found to the fall army worm threat across the world. This has been made possible through the ingenuity and innovative imaginations of RMG’s Research, Scientific and Technical staff”.  He said, “This must come as a big relief to the entire world, especially Ghana”. He concluded.

 

On why the company found it useful to be a part of the Pre-harvest event, Mr. Addy was emphatic that RMG being the sole company that imports hybrid seeds to Ghana, they see it as disservice to the  farmers if the company does not get involved in the event so as to be able to have direct engagements with them.“RMG is currently growing not less than 35,000 acres of its hybrid seeds around the country. We want our farmers to know more about this. We do it right, we provide actual solutions to their problems. We deem it an obligation and we wish to do it through practical approaches to the challenges they may have been facing by interacting with them at the event..

On their part, Motor King Limited, the leading manufacturer of Motor King tricycles in West Africa, made their presentation with a call on all to support the agriculture sector in Ghana since it is the future of the nation’s economy. The Managing Director of the company, Dr. Gao Nong said the company was pleased to have been part of the many institutions that have developed interest in supporting the event and were pleased to sponsoring it. ‘We have followed with keen interest the level of interest this event has generated within the agriculture sector and beyond in Ghana. We would not want to be left out in supporting a good course of this nature”. She emphasized. Motor King is the leader in the provision of tricycles that have become an integral part of the transportation of farm produce in Ghana. “We have just opened a new factory to assemble tricycles in Tamale that aims at providing for the transportation and other critical needs of our farmers in the northern regional capital and its environs. Being involved in an event of this nature gives us the opportunity to interact with those who matter in the agric sector for business expansion”. She concluded.
Agrihouse Foundation, .organizers of the event, through its Executive Director, Alberta Akosa, were full of gratitude to corporate Ghana for the support being offered Pre-harvest Exhibition and Conference and hopes that the nation Ghana becomes the ultimate beneficiary since agriculture is one major escape route from poverty.

The Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Exhibition & Conference is an interventional forum and an opportunity for various value chain actors in the agric sector to meet, discuss business, contracts and work together as a coherent team whose goal is to ensure that enough produce is available locally for consumption thereby drastically reducing importation. This gathering which will be made up of exhibitions and conferences will involve businesses in the various areas of the agric sector, such as seed production, fertilizer, finance, fisheries, storage, machinery, livestock, packaging & processing, ICT among others from the public and private sectors.
The 8th Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Exhibition & Conference is being partnered by the World Food Programme, USAID, ACDI and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Ghana and being sponsored by Yara, Kosmos, Ecobank, Hartoum, LK International, Foundries, Mel Consult, Interplast, RMG and Afgri John Deree.
Over 2000 participants are expected in Tamale to participate in the event whose conference will see over ten practical and engaging topics being discussed to be led by knowledgeable and skilled individuals in the agric and other related sectors. These sessions include, Farming with Purpose, Food Safety and Quality Standard, Poultry and Livestock, Custom and Contract Farming among others.

Interplast Limited, the largest manufacturer of PVC and HDPE pipes in West Africa, has supported the annual Pre-Harvest conference and exhibition with sponsorship package.

Presenting the cheque at a ceremony at the company’s office in Accra, Mr Haidar Malhas, Irrigation Services Manager of Interplast said the company was happy to support the Pre-harvest event because using its pipes, Interplast provides irrigation solutions for small, medium and large farms with its drip or sprinkler systems, in addition to a wide range of complimentary products.

Mr Malhas said the use of Interplast’s Ingreen Irrigation Solutions assists farmers all year round whether in rainy season or not.

“Many farmers depend on seasonal rain to irrigate their farms and in drier seasons, they have difficulties but with Interplast’s drip or sprinkler irrigation solutions, farmers are assisted throughout the year leading to higher yields to secure better profits.”

Aside the financial donation, Mr Malhas said the company is supporting the pre-harvest exhibition with technical support worth between Ghc20,000 and Ghc25,000 which will include setting up of demonstration sites at the exhibition venue, technical training on the use of their irrigation systems among others.

He further explained that Interplast has always supported government in its efforts to boostIng agriculture production in the country. Mr Malhas indicated that Interplast was prepared to support the government’s ‘One-Village-One-Dam’ initiative of building dams to support irrigation of farms in the three northern regions of Ghana.

“Interplast is commited to providing smart solutions for agriculture with its Ingreen Brand,” he added.

Alberta Nana Akyea Akosa, the Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, organisers of the Pre-harvest Exhibition and Conference  was grateful to Interplast for the support, praising them for the decision to be a part of the success story of agribusiness in Ghana. The sponsorship package she assured would go a long way in organising a successful event.

She entreated other companies and institutions operating in the agricultural value chain in Ghana to follow the good example of Interplast Limited by lending their support, adding that the event was one of the biggest platforms for the convergence of all stakeholders in the agricultural sector and therefore creates the biggest opportunity for business development among others.

The Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference is an annual interventional event that brings together stakeholders in the agriculture sector from both the public and private sectors to establish business relationships and discuss contracts as well as explore and exploit other growth opportunities in the sector.

It features key activities such as training programmes, workshops, field demonstrations, exhibitions among others. This year’s edition is scheduled for the 3^rd to 5^th of October 2018 at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale, the Northern regional capital.

Aside showcasing the many activities and businesses in the various areas of the agriculture sector, such as seed production, fertilizer, finance, fisheries, storage, machinery, livestock, packaging & processing, ICT among others, participants will be taken through practical and engaging sessions at the conference to enable them gain deeper insights into best practices as well as on how to take full advantage of the numerous opportunities in the agric sector for growth.

Over 2000 participants and exhibitors are expected to attend to interact, share ideas and close business deals. The 8^th Pre-Harvest Agribusiness Exhibition and Conference is being organised in partnerships with USAID-Advance, the World Food Programme, the Northern Regional Coordinating Council and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Other sponsors include Yara Ghana, Ecobank, Kosmos Energy, Hatoum Trading, LK International, Mel Consult, and Afgri John Deree.

Ghana is enormously blessed with a myriad of cash crops; among which is the highly lucrative cotton plant.

Cotton is a chief cash crop cultivated in most parts of the globe including Ghana. It is a soft, stable fibre shrub native to tropical and sub-tropical regions around the world including the Americas, India and Africa. The cultivation of the cotton crop began some seven thousand years ago, in the Indus Valley, a place today inhabited by present-day India and Pakistan.

Currently, china and India are considered the two largest producers of cotton, with an annual production of approximately 34 million and 24 million bales respectively. Textile industries in these two countries consume up to 80% of what they produce.

 With total international trade in cotton estimated at $12 billion, Africa has become increasingly vital to cotton production because of access to land and labour. This has consequently led to a doubling of cotton trade on the continent since 1980. Sustaining this gain is however increasingly threatened by the continents inability to add value to cotton which is largely grown by numerous small holder farmers.  

In Ghana, cotton is predominantly cultivated in the three northern regions where local farmers are engaged in the production value chain of the cash crop. Despite a promising start to the production of the cotton crop however, the sub-sector has seen a steady decline for years.

The fact that a country like Burkina Faso, which shares a number of similar land and climatic conditions as Ghana has a more progressive sector than Ghana, is the clearest indication yet that Ghana is not doing something right.

Indeed failure to reverse the neglected state of the local cotton sector has huge implications that Ghana is better off avoiding. The Government would not only be assuaging the high  poverty rate in the cotton producing areas of the country, it would also be diversifying a local economy that so desperately needs to be fed by income from as my areas of endeavour as possible.

Any effort aimed at revamping the cotton sub-sector must begin with practical steps to reverse the fortunes of Ghana Cotton Company Limited (GCCL) which have waned sharply over the years due to both internal and external factors- some of which include poor management and the absence of subsidies to cotton farmers; and a world market pricing for the commodity which literally ridicules the effort of the hardworking Ghanaian cotton farmer.

The Ghana Cotton Company Limited, established in the 1960s, and named Cotton Development Board, operates in the three Northern Regions of Ghana, with offices in Tamale and Bolgatanga.

Poor pricing

Among the myriad of problems inhibiting the progress of cotton farming in Ghana is the perennial issue of poor pricing. It is sad to know that despite the back-breaking effort of cotton farmers, the absence of a fair pricing mechanism ensures that cotton farmers gain very little from farming the ironically lucrative crop.

Last year precisely may 2017, The Chairman of Cotton Farmers Association in the Sissala area fingered poor pricing, as the chief reason for the poor performance of the sector. He further blamed lack of access to target market, inadequate subsidy on inputs among others for the collapse in the cotton sector.

While cotton farming is a hugely profitable practice with vast ramifications for the local economy, nothing significant can be achieved from the sector to power our economy, if the farmers are not guaranteed a fair reward for their hard work.

Indeed like every other crop, the cotton plant needs a lot of tending and care from planting to harvesting. While our farmers have never shown any reluctance to continue growing the crop, a continued neglect of concerns of poor pricing is a huge disincentive that could explode in our faces sooner than later. A workman deservers his pay and so effectual measures must be put in place to improve the pricing system for cotton cultivation to ensure that farmers are motivated enough to continually put in the hours on their farms and consequently boost agriculture.

 

Revamp old processing facilities

Unlike crops like cocoa which are exported in a near-original form to Europe and Asia to be processed into products like chocolate, cosmetics, medicines etc., cotton thankfully has a few facilities that ensure that it receives  an appreciable touch of refinement ahead of export to Europe and Asia.

It would be recalled that in 2017 the Minister of President’s Special Development Initiatives Mavis Hawa Koomson expressed shock at the abandoned state of the Tumu Cotton Ginnery in the Upper West Region.

According to locals of the factory site, the facility had been rendered operational for years because of a lack of raw material for processing. Further interaction with local’s further revealed that the unavailability of raw materials is due to a new farmer-disinterest in cotton crop; which many see as non-lucrative and have therefore veered into the cultivation of food crops.

Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson who led a team of government officials to visit the facility, said she had been saddened by the fact that the previous government failed to take steps in revamping the ginnery that is critical to cotton production in the country.

“What we saw here is beyond our imagination as we taught the problem was with the machines but that is not the issue”, she bemoaned.

The minister according to local news sources assured that the Tumu cotton ginnery would be operationalized to revive cotton production to feed the industry soon after the law to rename and restructure the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) was completed.

Indeed the foregoing   narrative makes for grim reading.It is regrettable that a facility with the capacity to employ 2000 or more people with the exception of farmers is lying idle.

Just like the Tumu cotton ginnery facility, government at all levels must demonstrate a conspicuous commitment to causing a renaissance of some sort in cotton production through a renewed emphasis on revamping cotton processing facilities.

The way forward

There is obviously a colossal amount of potential in the cotton sub-sector that we are currently not taking advantage of. While it is curiously surprising why a profitable sub –agric sector has been literally left to rot, efforts must begin in earnest to turn the fortunes of cotton farming in Ghana.

To achieve this much, a medium-long term strategy aimed at the establishment of an autonomous and sustainable fund that would support the activities of cotton farmers must be created and managed professionally.

In Tanzania for instance, the Tanzania Gatsby Trust (TGT) recently launched a special programme to increase cotton production to 1,500,000 bales from the current 700,000 bales with an investment of $7.2 million for a period of two years.

The significant successes achieved by the  U.S., China, India  and many other countries who have applied GM Technology should be emulated to help improve the fortunes of cotton farming.

The adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) technologies must then be followed closely by expansive drip irrigation systems to improve productivity and to mitigate avoidable cost.

Conclusion

There is obviously a lot of work left to be done to get the local agric industry where it truly belongs. While recent efforts like government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs is laudable, a deliberate effort aimed at diversifying the agric industry is worth every effort.

The current state of cotton cultivation is testament that there are more areas of agric endeavour that are edging away from relevance because of neglect and abysmal management.

The onus therefore lies on stakeholders to commit to a renewed diversification effort that will see Ghana tapping the full potential inherent in her hugely dynamic agric sector.