Accra, March 1, GNA – Agricultural extension officers in the Upper West Region have pledged to support the implementation of the Ghana Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.
The WRS project is one of the best initiatives to address post-harvest losses, and the farmers indicated their commitment to adopting and integrating the initiative into their outreach activities to improve their livelihoods.
A statement issued by IFC Ghana, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the extension officers, at the end of a training workshop on the WRS, observed that the skills acquired would enable them to support farmers to address key issues relating to post-harvest losses in the region.
Madam Barekisu Django Alhassan, the Regional Women in Agriculture Officer, said the training had helped her to understand how her outfit could support farmers to reduce post-harvest losses.
“This is one of the best initiatives that can help address all our struggles with the post-harvest issues in the region and beyond,” she said.
Mr Stephen K. Yelsung from the Extension Division of the Regional Department of Agriculture, said: “In fact, we have been struggling with post-harvest issues but this training has given us more information as to what we should do better”.
“We have learnt so much and going forward we are going to integrate the practices and the standards of the WRS into our extension activities so we can reach out to as many farmers as possible within the coming months.”
Mr Iddrisu Mahamadu of the Wa Municipal Extension Division of the Department of Agriculture said the Warehouse Receipt System and its interventions presented many opportunities for farmers to make more money from their grains to improve their livelihoods.
“I think this intervention is really helpful and it has many opportunities for smallholder farmers to get what they really deserve for their produce in terms of money. Going forward we need to let farmers know and we can do this by training other extension officers so we can get to more farmers as soon as possible”.
With financial support from the Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the IFC Ghana WRS project is being implemented in nine regions across the country.
It provides advisory and technical support aimed at setting up a well-functioning regulated system to improve post-harvest storage and facilitate access to financial services and structured markets to farmers and the supply chain.
This intervention focuses on strengthening the warehouse receipt ecosystem for the successful operations of the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX).
The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets.
It works in more than 100 countries, using capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries.
In fiscal year 2021, IFC committed a record $31.5 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
GNA