The
Fund’s Board recently approved the Gh20million facility to promote agricultural
financing.
According
to Chief Executive Officer of the Trust Fund, Daniel Duku, there are potentials
in the soya industry which requires adequate funding.
“That
is why we will be convincing the Board to allocate a portion of the Agric Fund
to the soya industry,” he said.
The
VCTF established the Soya Value Chain Project with the objective of financing
seed germination and production of soya beans for the poultry industry.
The
initiative targets nucleus farmers, out-growers and farmer-based organizations
to build partnerships with key institutions, especially incubators and centres
of innovation, to promote entrepreneurship.
Oil
miller, Kwasi Akomea Kyemanteng, has his company processing soya beans into
soya cake and oil to mainly serve the local poultry industry.
He
says there are dire constraints in the soya value chain, including access to
soya beans as raw material for processing, power crisis and the preference of
poultry farmers to source foreign feed.
“Ghana
should put in place policies that will ensure the value chain in Ghana works,”
he said.
It
has been observed farmers prefer growing maize and cowpea due to the pricing
advantage compared to the low prices of soya.
To
promote soya production, the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) has a critical role to play in the entire value
chain.
Increasing
the linkage between research, farmers and extension remains critical to improve
production levels, says Dr. Stephen Amoah, research scientist at the CRI.
His
Institute has been developing improved crop varieties that are resistant to
pests and diseases and others that are resistant or tolerant to shattering,
which is a major production constraint.
Dr.
Amoah says provision of adequate information to farmers and extension requires
regular funding sources to sustain the service.
The
Venture Capital Trust Fund is seeking an alliance with the Export Development
and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) to grow the agriculture sector.
“There
is the need for us to be able to work together. We have started this initiation
with the Minister [of Agriculture] who is quite enthused and optimistic that
this can grow. So all sectors of agric is going to be looked at with this
alliance,” Mr. Duku stated.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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