The board chairman of AGRA and former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn has urged partners and MPs to support Ghana’s food systems transformation efforts.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn made the call at a meeting with key parliamentarians in Ghana as part of efforts to foster collaboration to help improve the competitiveness of agro-industries and enhance food systems in the country.

The meeting allowed the board chairman to interact with MPs who have been working closely with AGRA over the past year on food systems transformation and environmental issues, particularly climate change.

The engagement also allowed for MPs to understand from the board chair’s perspective, AGRA’s strategic direction and expectations moving forward, and what farmers and stakeholders can expect from AGRA Ghana in 2025.

“I think our conversation is very important because parliamentarians are at the centre of development in the agriculture sector by allocating budget to the sector, as well as policy-making,” Prime Minister Dessalegn said.

“They are very important to facilitate expeditious implementation and transformation of the food sector. So today we had a very productive discussion and I think we'll continue to do so to greatly transform Ghana’s agricultural sector,” he added.

MPs have been instrumental in shaping efforts to improve food systems on the continent through the Africa Food Systems Parliamentary Network (AFSPaN).

AFSPaN is a network of MPs who are working together to amplify the objectives of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

Since 2003, CAADP has served as the framework for agricultural transformation across Africa.

The current chair of AFSPaN Dr Godfred Seidu Jasaw led the parliamentary delegation to the meeting with the AGRA board chairman.

“We are excited that we have the former prime minister of Ethiopia here. His country has been doing well…They are investing about 17% (of GDP in agriculture).

"This helped to catapult the agricultural sector, particularly irrigation and research. And he served as board chair of AGRA, he’s been very instrumental in the food systems transformation conversation,” Dr. Jasaw said.

Ghana's country director of AGRA, Dr. Betty Annan explained MPs play a key role as legislators in developing the right policies and legislation that can enable the transformation of Africa’s agriculture.

AGRA worked with the MPs in Ghana on reviewing the just passed Environmental Protection Bill and is currently working with them on the Agricultural Extension Bill.

“One of the key challenges we are having in the agricultural sector is climate change. The EPA Bill has a whole chapter on what can be done to handle climate change.

"The bill, if implemented, will be instrumental in attacking some of the challenges we are having,” Dr. Jasaw who is MP for Wa East and former Ranking Member on the Food and Agricultural Committee, said.

Engagement with partners

Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn also engaged AGRA partners in Ghana.

The meeting was to appreciate the efforts of partners in supporting the implementation of AGRA’s strategy aimed at ensuring inclusive agricultural transformation across Africa to reduce hunger, improve nutrition, and adapt to climate change.

At the meeting were representatives from the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES), Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD), and Statistics Research and Information Directorate (SRID) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement at the University of Ghana; Crop and Soil Research Institutes of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research under Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, among others. Representatives from NGOs and private sector partners also participated.

Dr Annan said the partners are important stakeholders in AGRA’s work because “they help us to directly reach the smallholder farmer to help transform his or her life from that of a solitary struggle for survival to a business that thrives through the delivery of proven solutions.”

Nana Opoku Agyemang Prempeh, CEO of Grow For Me, a company working to provide a ready market for farmers, was excited about the meeting.

“We want to impact 130,000 smallholder farmers, providing ready market to about $10m worth of rice and soybean and enabling regular people to invest in agriculture at scale in Ghana through the mobile money networks…Meeting other companies is helping me align our thoughts on how we can impact communities,” he said.

Ing. Busia Dawuni, Managing Director of Integrated Water and Agricultural Development (IWAD) Ghana Ltd. said he looks forward to continuing working with AGRA to improve food systems in the country.

“We have been with AGRA for the past five years in the area of seed. We want to scale up the volume of seeds we produce and make them available to certified seed producers and smallholder farmers,” he said.

“We are importing over 80% of our seed needs in Ghana which is not good enough. Covid has taught us a lesson.

"We want to encourage AGRA to keep up support for the seed sector so we can stand on our feet to produce our own seeds for our farmers to contribute to food security, good income and reduce poverty in rural areas,” he added.