Bolgatanga, April 15, GNA- Regardless of good rain pattern and Agriculture yield, the inability to manage farm produce after harvest including bad storage practices in most communities affect food adequacy in families and communities.
Farmers after every harvest expect fair prices in the market for their produce, so that they can sell some of their produce for cash and store the rest for the future. Therefore, from the small holder farmer to commercial farmers the phenomenon of good storage to ensure zero post – harvest loss is important.
However, the challenge is that the mode of storage from the homestead, communities, districts and regions and the nation at large call for improvement if farmers will continue to feed the nation.
Farmers dry on the bare floor in a corner ranging from a kitchen to the top of a roof and this practice often affects grain quality and if not well done brings about insect infestations and mold, among others. Through the usual drying, de-hulling, shelling, winnowing and transportation of the food produce such as rice, beans and maize among others, massive quantities of it get lost in the fields.
Effective grain storage therefore with reduced losses contributes towards reducing overall food losses for the small holder farmer and have impact on livelihoods for all.
GOVERNMENT WAREHOUSING POLICY
The efforts of the government of Ghana, to handle anticipated food surpluses under the One district, one warehouse policy is one of the plans to reduce post -harvest losses, reduce food imports and rural migration.
Since the introduction of the policy, many of the warehouses have been left unutilized, and ineffective because of poor management structures.
At the President’s recent state of the nation address, he stated that, “To address post- harvest losses some 55 warehouses were built with 15 more at advanced stages of completion”. The intervention, he said, would add 80,000 metric tonnes to the national grain storage capacity.
One product considered among others in ensuring good storage, is rice. If that is well executed, it will also impact positively on the One district, one factory objective and reduce import bills which presently stands at US$13.7 billion.
CURRENT STORAGE PROCESSES
Dr Issah Sugri, a Research specialist at CSIR /savanna Agricultural station at Manga in the Bawku Municipality explains that storage at the homestead, are processes that should be taken seriously.
He noted that after harvest an aggregator mobs the grains from a homestead or a farmer to a small warehouse or and at a national level, the system needs an aggregator to mop the grains from the farmer to a bigger warehouse for storage or further to either the district, regional or the national level.
According to him, the process of mobbing grains for storage is bereft with lots of operational deficiencies including poor maintenance culture of the warehouses hence affecting the warehousing system.
“Farmers especially in Northern parts of the country store their rice in paddy forms but for purposes of the warehouse policy and implications on food security, the method cannot immediately address emergencies though the policy is a good one.
Dr Issah advised that to respond to food supplies’ emergencies, paddy rice must be processed and kept in a warehouse so that it could easily be relied on when urgently needed.
“In Ware housing certain things must make it work, which include the design of warehouse, equipment and accessories is key, drying platform, quality assurance system and technical capacity of those managing it need to be ensured.”
FINANCING
Apart from a receipt system being implemented by some private entities, a farmer’s aspiration is cash for his produce when she or he tends it in, however, financial challenges have bedeviled the current warehousing programme and this is creating disinterest by most farmers to present their produce to a warehouse.
Before a farmer sends grains to the warehouse, he needs money to solve some other personal and family problems but when that is not available, they find it difficult to send their only source of income for storage somewhere.
MAINTENANCE CULTURE
The warehouses are at the mercy of the weather and need some systems to be put in place to ensure routine maintenance of the facilities. Three years ago, some warehouses in the Upper East Region were ripped up and it has taken a long time to fix them.
There are also more facilities that have not gone into full operation, and this alone justifies that if some food produces were kept there, it would have suffered some depreciation because no technical persons have visited these faulted warehouses to correct the damages.
The technical capacity of managers of the warehouses is absent and some patrons of the facilities have complained that management is left in the hands of assembly members or political party boys and community opinion leaders among others who have no idea or the technical efficiency and know -how in the operations of these facilities.
ROLE OF THE NATIONAL BUFFER STOCK COMPANY
Interconnectivity between the warehouses and the National Buffer Stock Company, the Ministry of food and Agriculture, research and business processing companies remain wide.
Agricultural Scientists abound in the country with reputable research institutions whose contributions to agriculture cannot be over emphasized and these scientists need to be involved in the design of the facilities, to ensure the facilities are fit for purpose.
There is also a need for a secretariat, to link these farmers to the market. Therefore, leaving out key stakeholders, involving square pegs in round holes could be a way of ruining a good policy.
The weak linkage with the buffer stock company and these warehouses is not good enough and therefore there is the need to relook at it again. It is recommended that the facilities should be an appendage of the National Buffer Stock Company (BSC) and should be addressed as such.
All these warehouses need to relate to the processing companies that will absorb the produce particularly fruits among others, to add value to them and by so doing the youth in rural communities will find jobs in the companies and factories.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The government needs to provide an enabling environment for the policy of one district one factory to work and achieve its stated objectives.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture should be equipped to provide appropriate technologies and good seed to enable farmers produce more and store it well.
The ability to produce, store and add value is the way to go, provision of affordable farm inputs and mechanization services is key if farmers are to improve their performance in agricultural production.
There is the need for a national stakeholder engagement with agricultural researchers in the country to advise on the warehouse policy.
Farmers can produce and store, but as a nation, the processing aspect is weak.
The policy is a good one and so funds should be made available to absorb all grains that reach the warehouse and on time.
