Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) on Wednesday called for measures that would enable small scale farmers to graduate into entrepreneurial farmers and contribute to accelerated growth in agriculture in West Africa.

He said this in a speech read for him by Mr. Yaw Effah Berfi, Deputy Minister in-charge of Crops at the opening session of a two-day joint FAO-IFAD regional workshop on “Rebuilding Agricultural Production Potential for West Africa” in Accra.

Smallholder farmers provided over 80 per cent of food needs in the face of numerous challenges but the Minister said they still faced challenges such as low application of technology and weak and un-enumerative markets which needed urgent attention.

Mr. Ahwoi said the workshop was timely because it seeks to consolidate the latest evidence-based understanding of challenges, roles and responsibilities of governments, private sectors and other stakeholders to foster inclusive, competitive and sustainable food production systems in West Africa.

The workshop is focusing on the latest initiatives, programmes and country case studies from the Sub-Region and beyond to draw lessons, reflect on the future course of action and initiate the process of dissemination and capitalisation of best practices successful and model initiatives to promote, disseminate and scale up on-going efforts.

In addition, it would address and reflect both the central role of the private sector in the development of efficient and competitive food production and marketing systems.

Mr. Ahwoi said weak market for crops and low prices of commodities only reinforced the vicious cycle of low productivity, low profits and low technology and that called for strengthening markets for small scale producers and ensuring that barriers preventing such producers from fully participating in markets were removed.

He noted that “Effective producer organisations particularly, holds the key to transforming agriculture of our countries if they can be mobilised to better access agricultural services, advocate and participate in agricultural policy design and dialogue”.

Mr. Ahwoi urged the participants from sister African countries together with FAO and IFAD to share vast experiences on evolving models of agribusiness involving the promotion of commodity value chains through inclusive public private partnership.

Madam Maria Helena Semedo, Assistant Director-General/Regional Representative- FAO, said the food crises of 2007-2008 laid bare a serious weakness of agriculture in many developing countries, including Africa, resulting in serious market bottleneck.

She explained that the World Summit of 2009 held at FAO in Rome, therefore called for renewed efforts for strengthening market linkages for small scale producers, with particular attention to food production systems for greater food security.

Madam Semedo said the comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) had made significant inroads towards the process, “However, now it is crucial to up-scale and fast track its implementation”.

She said the workshop would thus address and reflect on the central role of the private sector in the development of efficient and competitive food production and marketing systems, adding examples of successful models, producers organisations would be discussed to enhance their capacity to become effective players in national, regional and global markets.

Dr Ulac Demirag, Country Representative, IFAD, said the workshop was being sponsored by the two institutions to enable participants as well as governments to share experiences that could guide the future work together in support of staple crop value chain development.

He said IFAD had traditionally focused its support to agriculture in West and Central Africa on staple crops, particularly rice and cassava, while working with the main producers of these crops – women and men smallholder framers.

Dr Demirag mentioned poor transmission of demand from consumers to farmers in terms of prices and quality, absence of coordination in supply chain and low levels of efficiency among the different actors and higher risks from price volatility due to government policies as some challenges suffered by the staple crop value chains.

He called for identified practical solutions at the policy, farmer organisations and business levels, which could be adopted and scaled up to allow smallholder farmers to benefit from the growing market opportunities in Ghana and throughout West and Central Africa.

Mr. Aziz Elbehri, Senior Economist, FAO, said a joint publication would be designed from the workshop to be distributed to participating countries to serve as a guide in staple food production.**