Ghana: Improving all-year availability of safe and fresh vegetables

Ghana knows temporal shortage of fresh (fruit) vegetables, leading to high prices for the poor and hence under-consumption. Also the use of pesticides and poor post-harvest hygiene causes much concern for consumers. The ‘Fresh Green Ghana’ project has been started to improve the all-year availability of affordable, safe fresh vegetables, to modernize the protected cultivation sector and to improve supply chains for the urban poor.

Production system and value chain
Wageningen University & Research collaborate with the Ghanaian companies SafiSana Ghana Ltd. as project coordinator, and Agri-Impact Ltd., Premium Vegetables Co. Ltd., and Urban Jungle Agro Ind. Ltd.

Data on climate, the production system and value chains are extremely scarce in Ghana, which hampers a clear analysis. Therefore, such data will be collected to serve as a basis for analysis and improvement of the production system and the value chain, which will be implemented and evaluated during this 3-year project.

Strengthening the sector
During the project, a larger group of farmers will be involved for sharing lessons learned and strengthen and enlarge the sector as a whole. Also, the project addresses post-harvest challenges in poor communities by collaborating with local (female) market managers on data collection on quality decline and best-practice sharing. These activities lead to greater availability of fresh (fruit) vegetables for the urban poor in Ghana during the year, generation of employment, and through the lower use of chemical crop protection agents.

The first workshop was held at November 14th at the premises of SafiSana Ghana Ltd. A common understanding of project goals, activities and arrangements was achieved. The project intends to organize periodic workshops where achievements are discussed and knowledge is circulated.

The ‘Fresh Green Ghana’ project is funded by the Food & Business Applied Research Fund of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Source: Wageningen University & Research