Some farmers displaying their produce at the market linkage fair in Damongo
World Vision Ghana, has organized a market linkage fair for stakeholders in the Agribusiness sector in the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region.
The fair brought together farmers, and stakeholders in the agricultural value chain together aimed to promote the visibility of value chain activities, promote business-to-business (B2B) opportunities, and build a network to support sustainable access to the market and services of key value chain products.
World Vision Ghana (WVG) is implementing the Landscape and Environmental Agility Across the Nation (LEAN) project, a four-year project funded by the European Union’s flagship Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) initiative in Kessena Nankana West, and West Gonja districts, respectively.
Speaking at the fair, the project manager for the European Union (EU) funded Landscape and Environmental Agility (LEAN) project in West Gonja Municipality and the Kassena-Nankana West Districts, Joseph Edwin Yelkabong, said the fair seeks to address the market trend of smallholders and will also bring actors within the Agricultural value chain to network and also identify potential input dealers as well as buyers.
According to him, the fair also forms part of measures to sustain the EU-LEAN project’s gains, facilitate direct linkages between local value chain actors and potential buyers and service providers, promote co-learning and experience sharing across partners and projects in similar fields, and use existing institutional supports to foster value chain development in the districts.
He noted that the EU-LEAN project is aimed at conserving biodiversity, building climate resilience, and reducing emissions from land-use changes while helping local farmers improve their livelihoods as well as promoting partnerships and building networks of stakeholders in the value chain which is critical to sustaining the intervention.
“These activities also aim to promote public-private partnerships and networking relationships between value chain stakeholders, and create awareness about adapted financial products”.
Mr. Yelkabong disclosed that aside from promoting environmental agility, the project also focuses on creating job opportunities for youth and gender-inclusive value chain activities, improving access to markets and information, and strengthening the institutional capacity of local value chain actors adding that building market linkage is part of sustainable measures of the project.
The Acting Regional Operations Manager at World Vision Ghana, the implementors of the LEAN project, Sergious Before expressed worry about the felling of trees still ongoing in the Municipality and called on chiefs and stakeholders to help tackle the menace.
“ The LEAN Project is to encourage and protect the environment, preserve the trees, and in the long run, improve the lives of the people so people in the communities should stop felling the trees for charcoal production and fuelwood because it’s a threat to the success of the project”.
The EU-LEAN project, launched on May 11, 2021, is being implemented in three targeted landscapes, the High Forest, the Transition Zone, and the Savannah Landscape, by a consortium of four local and international NGOs comprising The Rainforest Alliance, World Vision Ghana, Tropenbos Ghana, and EcoCare Ghana.
BY Eric Kombat, Damongo