Participants at the opening session.
Each year, food crops worth $700,000 go waste in the country due to post harvest losses, the Peasant Farmers Association (PFA) has revealed.
This, according to Victoria Adongo, executive director of the association, represented 70 per cent of total food production in the country.
At a private sector investment forum on food and nutrition security in Accra yesterday, she said the situation was a serious one which required attention.
The two-day forum brought together more than 20 stakeholders to deliberate on proposed strategies on improving public-private partnership in food and nutrition security.
Participants are from the PFA, International Food Policy Rsearch Institute and other civil society organisations (CSOs) under the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) Voice for Change project.
The project is a five-year advocacy programme aimed at strengthening CSOs to advocate for an enabling environment for the groups they represent in sectors including food and nutrition security.
Mrs Adongo said the situation whereby only 30 per cent of crops produced ended up on the market resulting in huge financial losses to the farmers and reducing food production was unacceptable.
She noted that although the government was doing its best through the construction of warehouses and other incentives under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, it was inadequate.
He said the support from private sector was needed to alleviate the situation.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture, Kwame Asafu Adjei was concerned about the plight of farmers and pledged to facilitate policies that would weather the storm.
Ms Josephine Eklu, Policy Officer for Agribusiness at the Netherlands Embassy in Ghana, noted that public-private partnership was key in addressing post harvest losses and other challenges.
By Jonathan Donkor
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