Local agricultural advocacy NGO, Agrihouse Foundation, has launched the maiden edition of its Ghana Agrochemical and Crop Protection Exhibition and Awards (GACA) at its Dzorwulu office in Accra.

The event is slated for Techiman in the Bono East Region from April 18-20, 2024.

The Pre-Planting Season Exhibition is a pre-farming season initiative that seeks to bring together agricultural extension officers, agrochemical scientists, agrochemical dealers, policy makers and farmers to deliberate on possible ways of disseminating information that is useful for this year’s major pre-planting season while the exhibition is designed to create a one-stop platform for trade and networking.

The maiden edition of the programme will be used to award farmers who have distinguished themselves in the agricultural sector.

Speaking during the press launch, the CEO and Founder of Agrihouse, Alberta Akyaa Akosa, stated that the programme will offer an opportunity to participants  to display their products and services during the exhibition.

She said some of the things that will be on display are seeds, agricultural machinery, pesticides and fertilizers.

She recounted how difficult it was ten years ago to come by crop protection and nutrition companies.

She added that a lot of agro-based companies have sprung up now, hence the need to connect them to farmers and crop protection organizations to ensure reduction in post-harvest losses.

According to Madam Alberta Akosa, it is the spring season, and this period requires much needed intervention from these crop protection organizations.

According to her, she is expecting about five hundred farmers and farming groups to be part of the initiative.

She was of the view that this is the appropriate platform that can contribute to the reduction of post-harvest losses.

Alberta Akosa further emphasised that the agribusiness sector has truly advanced but there is still more work to be done, citing farmer’s access to the crop protection agencies, as one of the important issues which needs to be looked at and for which reason a platform has been created.

She added that it is important that innovations, logistics, crop protection and nutrition agencies come on board when issues pertaining to farmers arise.