Further investigations into the intriguing world of buyers of vegetables in the cross border trade between Ghana and her francophone neighbours reveal that, in spite of the composite, comprehensive and overlapping mandate of the Savannah Accelerated Development Programme (SADA), it may not have adequately factored the Upper East in its agricultural programmes, in terms of enhanced production and marketing, vis a vis the competition from Burkina Faso and the role of tomato buyers from the South.

SADA’s impact is also yet to show on the ground, to the extent that major players like the vegetable producers in the Upper East have not been involved in the packaging, monitoring and execution of the programme, The Chronicle gathered. That canals in Vea (Bolgatanga) and (Tono) Navrongo are still silted, is evidence, according to our investigations.

Additionally, there is little evidence of any visible awareness creation about SADA programmes among producers in target communities on the part of SADA, regarding particular issues like the inextricable integration of the Savannah with the Sahel, in terms of people and the economies of the sub-region.

Ongoing investigations by The Chronicle has also established that, farther afield in the same equation of agricultural production, the concern and worry over the years on the part of every ambassador or head of mission and chancery in Ouagadougou, has scarcely moved district assemblies, including Kassena and Nankana in Navrongo and Paga, as well as the Municipal Assembly in Bolgatanga, to stamp its authority and help arrest the rot.

This is regardless of the fact that local government structures have place for desks like environment, trade, agriculture, etc., as part of its structures in effectively assisting to implement and monitor Central Government programmes on the ground.

For a vibrant cross border trade which benefits local government agencies in Ghana in revenue, “this negligence is unpardonable,” according to a volunteer on a religious NGO working in the North. “That is sad, particularly when trade is vibrant and buyers have been continually skipping farm gates in the Upper East for Burkina Faso since 1998.”

Buyers from Ghana moving into Burkina Faso followed the invasion of a strange browning disease that pushed tomato buyers beyond Ghana borders in the bid to import the vegetable to feed markets in Ghana. The woes of the nation’s then major source of tomato supplies, who were the producers from the Upper East, were deepened, having lost opportunities to partner international food processing companies like Heinz and Unilever under circumstances The Chronicle is still investigating.

Whilst complaints from tomato importers GNTTTA in their engagements of Burkinabe authorities and relevant State agencies of Ghana listed accusations against the fringe traders and producers from Burkina Faso, it downplayed, for instance, the recklessness of truck drivers and the carnage on highways.

The heads of mission and supporting staff, who were on the spot and bore the brunt of the irresponsible actions of buyers from Ghana, posited that, once most of embarrassing activities of buyers came from the farm gates, it would be prudent, if buyers were restrained from moving into farm gates.

According to the Ghana Mission, a major solution will be for the Burkinabe authorities to create a central open market, where buyers would engage producers and sort out grading, pricing, sorting and packaging difficulties, in arresting the rot in the trade.

The Burkinabe authorities took notice of the suggestion and were consulting at Cabinet level when the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) of Washington, US, in the last quarter of 2009 undertook a study in the Upper East on tomato production and marketing in the two countries.

The research team comprised players from processing, trade, State agronomists and technocrats, as well as input dealers.

The team visited the Northern Star Tomato Factory at Pwalugu and spoke with farmers and technical and management staff on the factory.

Unassailable information reaching The Chronicle established that during the research, a sticky point was the inability of managers of the Pwalugu Tomato Factory and the Upper East farmers to agree on price per weight, suggesting a pervasive lack of trust between producer and processor or buyer, for that matter, which is at the heart of agriculture in Ghana.

The IFPRI report was made public by the Head of Team, a Dr. Shashi Kolavelli and associate Elizabeth Robertson with the team in record time – less than four months after the research was conducted.

Subsequently, a full house of stakeholders and relevant State agencies were invited for the launch, held at the Coconut Groove Hotel. In attendance were input dealers, processors, academia, technocrats and politicians.

Also conspicuously present was Ahmed Alhassan, Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture and the Chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture. The Minister, who is also MP for Mion, received a copy.

The Hon. Minister, interestingly hails from the North. He is an agricultural scientist and elite Northern indigene, who is obviously very much aware about the phenomenon of grinding poverty in the North and, particularly, the woes of Upper East producers.

The revealing IFPRI report compelled the largely illiterate GNTTTA to seek the support of the Ghana Embassy in designing a framework to correct the rot by sanitizing the trade. That effort culminated in a document that was pushed within 24 hours of its crafting to the corridors of power in Burkina Faso in late 2010.

The proposal to the Burkinabe Government cited the issues of fake CFAs, reckless driving on the part of drivers, conflicts over grading, sorting, pricing, packaging etc which have resulted, sometimes, in the history of the local and cross border trade in fatalities; and the Ghana Embassy proactively proposed ways to address each issue.

The overall objective of the framework designed a year after the Washington IFPRI study was made public, and was “streamlining the processes of purchasing from farm gates and transportation along the principal streets and highways of Burkina Faso.”

The framework was crafted and engineered by French language scholar and career diplomat, Marcel Domayele, then Trade and Economic Counselor at the Ghana Mission in Ouagadougou, and now at the Legal and Consular Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in Accra, under Hon. Hannah Tetteh.

In “sanitizing, modernizing and standardizing” the cross border tomato trade, the authorities of Ghana and Burkina Faso hoped to create a cross border market project under which players would obligated themselves to “submit to law and authority as pertains in their respective countries or sub-region in following their various, cultural and economic vocations and activities through legal instruments, legislative measures and framework.”

The proposed Burkina Faso-Ghana Vegetable Marketing Project, when inaugurated, will be managed by producers and buyers representatives with the authorities of the two countries playing regulatory and supervisory roles in ensuring that protocols were vigorously observed in improving and expanding trade as well as concretizing efforts at regional integration.

The project envisages as well an official banking institution to handle money transaction on “private sector” open market. Additionally, there will be a mandatory switch from outdated but expensive, backbreaking, use-and-discard wooden crates of several assizes contrived to confuse producers to the use of standardized “50kg plastic crates.”

A quiet research by The Chronicle among carpenters at Anloga Junction, Kumasi, which is the home base of wooden crates in Ghana, revealed that the large-sized crate, properly smoothened and garnished can produced chair and table for primary school kids, though they end up as fuel for indigenous caterers at vehicle terminals, markets and at the nooks and crannies in the country.

People dying in Burkina Faso and being buried hastily on roadsides, because they could not be identified, also raised issues of identifying traders, which was prompted by the Ghana Embassy and Burkinabe authorities, the GNTTTA submitted its list of importers as a major step in the realization of the objectives of the protocols.

Incidentally, Ghana’s transporters, who are the veritable ‘bêtes noire’ of the trade, were yet to submit theirs and even respond to an invitation from the Roads and Highways to discuss speed and weight issues, The Chronicle learnt.

The GNTTTA is additionally compiling another list of immigrant workers, including harvesters, porters and sorters, who annoy the Burkinabe authorities by their sitting precariously on cargoes and hanging on rails of tomato trucks like monkeys…”so that when they dropped dead on the stretch unnoticed to their death because they flouted the laws,” they could be identified, a lead buyer from Agbogbloshie, Accra, told The Chronicle.

Additionally, the protocols called for lawful reduction in the spate of contraband activities and hit-and-run tendencies on the part of truck drivers in Burkina Faso territory.

The proposal further suggested the introduction onto the turf of interested banking/insurance institutions with appropriate products etc to meet the contingencies of each area of the trade, particularly trade finance and cargo insurance for buyers as well as pensions programme for producers.

The challenges in the trade also offered opportunities for improved quality of the vegetable as an export/import commodity; and safe, durable, haulage and porter-friendly packaging system that can endure in-transit challenges like the harsh weather and tortuous journey.

Significantly, all these activities were being coordinated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) under the former gender-activist former Minister and her technocrat lieutenants.

Togo and Benin trade in tomatoes from Burkina Faso during the lean season, just like Ghana. Niger and Mali share markets with Ghana in tomato and onion. Buyers from Ghana have a trade charter with Togo, endorsed by their respective Ministries of Trade.

Together with Burkina Faso, who also buys from Ghana under Ghana’s rain fed period, there is, minus Nigeria, a 70 million population market in vegetables – all in the informal economy.

That is aside of the equally huge market in processed tomato. Processed or raw, the vegetable is listed number as regards the foremost item a consumer buys on the market, traders insist. The experts say tomato employs, too, about the greatest number of workers for a commodity – from clearing through inputs to production, extension and harvesting, as well as sorting, portage, haulage, distribution, retailing and processing.

Togo and Benin have buyers who are part of the trade. Like Ghana, their women buy from Burkina during the lean season. Niger and Mali share mutual markets with Ghana in tomato and onion. Buyers from Ghana have a trade charter with Togo, which is endorsed by their respective Ministries of Trade. Together with Burkina Faso, who also buys from Ghana under Ghana’s rain fed period, there is a over a 100 million population market in vegetables – all in the informal economy.

That is aside of the equally huge market in processed tomato. Processed or raw, the vegetable is listed number one as regards consumer choice, further research by The Chronicle indicated. The experts also say tomato employs about the greatest number of workers for a commodity – from land clearing through inputs to production, extension services and harvesting as well as sorting, portage, haulage, distribution, retailing and processing.

Also up for grabs, The Chronicle learnt, is a unique tomato processing opportunity for entrepreneurs who are ingenious enough to create newer brands, in attempting to capture the sub-regional market.

Of the diverse brands currently found on our markets, which are imported or locally produced, we have Obaapa, Pomo, Gino, Aladdin, Vito, Smile, Africa’s Choice, Tasty Tom. Included also among the about 15 tomato brands are Toma, Zeera and Fiorini.

The Chronicle’s sampling of opinions from budding entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso and Ghana eyeing the proposed project reveals that, for processing in particular, including tomato beverages, some cutting edge initiatives are important in high-flying our current marketing standards, such that the sub-region can have a unique processed brands which the ordinary 70 million peoples in the sub-region of Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo can identify with – as a mark of integration. More anon!