Accessing market by smallholder farmers in Ghana

Agriculture plays a significant role in the Ghanaian economy and Africa as a whole.  However, there are challenges facing the agriculture value chain which hinder the potential growth of the sector. In this article, we present the most common challenge facing smallholder farmers in “accessing market” for their farm products.

1. Challenges facing farmers in accessing markets

Generally, the following challenges were revealed:

• Selling of farm produce to markets which are less demanding
• Selling through third parties (Intermediary) due to the small scale of production
• Due to High transaction cost involved in reaching far distant markets
• Lack the capacity relating to volume, quality, and time bond delivery demand by modern agriculture value chain. 

 Sharing Knowledge

The knowledge needed to improve global agriculture already exists, including within remote indigenous communities, it often does not reach those farmers that could benefit most.

• Increase the level of education on crop and farm management for farmers and agricultural workers, including women.
• Promote the development of village-based knowledge centers.
• Provide access to scalable information technologies for farmers, including women and young farmers, to receive weather, crop and market alerts, as well as other early warning systems to help them make the right decisions for sustainability and productivity.
• Establish open and transparent two-way exchanges that capture the ‘voice of the farmer’ in the process of policy formulation and implementation.
• 3. Create Local Market

Fundamental resources should be available to farmers, including women and young farmers, to help them manage their production process more reliably and at less cost.

• Secure access to land and other resources, especially for women farmers.
• Provide rural access to microfinance services, especially to microcredit.
• Build infrastructure – particularly road to make supplies available to farmers.
• Establish training programs in infrastructure management, operations and maintenance for local and regional settings
• Improve access to agricultural inputs and services, including mechanical tools, seeds, fertilizers, and crop protection materials.
• Encourage and co-ordinate multiple local actors to ensure information and supplies get into farmers’ hands.
• Invest in bioenergy where it contributes to energy security and to rural development.

• Protect Harvest

In many of the poorest countries, 20-60% of crop yields are lost because of inadequate pre- and post-harvest support.  Likewise, vast quantities of food are squandered during production and consumption phases of the food chain.

• Build local storage facilities and transportation mechanisms, including cold chain storage for food preservation.
• Localize the application of agronomic knowledge, pest-identification and meteorological information.
• Educate the public on sustainable consumption and production needs and behaviours, including on the need to reduce food waste.
• Provide risk management tools to support farmers in managing weather and market variations.

1. Access to Market

Farmers need to be able to get their products to market and receive equitable price treatment when they do.

• Provide remote access to up-to-date market pricing information
• Develop well-functioning markets through transparent information, fair prices, sound infrastructure and reduced speculation
• Encourage co-operative approaches to marketing for smallholders
• Improve smallholder farmers’ marketing skills through entrepreneurship training
• Reduce market distortions to improve opportunities for all strata of agriculture nationwide.
• When necessary and possible use preservation techniques on the harvest. These can include drying, frying, smoking, or salting part or all of the harvest
• When weather, soil conditions, market demand favour it, farmers can consider growing crops or strains of crops that are more hardy and take longer to spoil

Kartavaya Ghana Limited- Our solutions to market access

TECHNOLOGY  

• FarmPlace (FP)-  The KGL team will create a media market platform to connect potentials buyers and sellers of farm produce across the country and beyond.
• Consideration for an operational website and a mobile application, and text message portal.
• Sellers will be connected to the platform at a cost.
• Share of percentage will be apportion to KGL Ghana for sales made on products

DOMESTIC CONSUMERS

• Creating linkage between smallholder farmers and large-scale consumers (Poultry farmers, exporters, hotels, restaurants, etc)
• Connecting smallholder farmers to direct large-scale customer for better prices

POST-HARVEST SALES

• Farm produce can be stored at the ware-house during harvest to be sold at the peak season for high return

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE  

• The team will assist in providing farmers with technical expertise in farming the right commodities, procedures, harvest and storage with the sole aim of leading high yields
• Provision of farm tools and machinery to farmers at SLA.

SPECIAL FARM COMMODITIES

• With the recommendations of KGL Ghana farmers will be given a particular farm produce to cultivate which has a well-defined market