Ghana is unable to meet the demand for soybean production for both domestic and export in excess of over 100,000 metric tons for domestic demand alone.
The situation is blamed on lack of capacity for medium and smallholder farmers to increase their annual Soybean production with an additional 200,000 metric tons.
These were revealed at a stakeholder meeting in Accra
Soybean is one of the crops emerging as a cash crop that farmers see as appropriate for soils that have lost fertility.
The economic importance of soybean has gained popularity and acceptance among farmers due to its increasing market demand for export, domestic and industrial processing into cooking oil and animal feed.
About 87% of the annual demand for soybean in Ghana is for industrial purposes, of which 67% is used for animal feed.
Though Ghana’s soybean production has increased from about 113,000 metric tons in 2009 to over 200,000 metric tons in 2020, the domestic demands is in the excess of about 300,000 metric tons.
There is growing market demand and unused processing-export capacity.
To address the low soyabean yields under smallholder farming conditions, there is the need to facilitate the soya value chain, such that smallholder farmers will be linked to input and output markets, finance, equipment, and information.
The Accra stakeholder meeting is to fashion out ways to address the shortfalls along the value chain.
These linkages will build the capacity of smallholder farmers to increase the efficiency of their farm businesses with improved production and post-harvest handling practices.
Current Status of Soybean Production and Demand in Ghana
Agriculture remains an important sector of Ghana’s economy and accounting for an average of over 25% of the GDP over the past decades and providing employment for over 42% in the working sector.
In the food and agriculture sector development policy (fasdep si), ghana’s strategies to generate economic activities from agriculture include increased access to market, value chain development, improved competitiveness of production and institutional support.
Soybean is one of the crops emerging as a cash crop that farmers see as appropriate for soils that have lost fertility. the economic importance of soybean has gained popularity and acceptance among farmers due to its increasing market demand for export, domestic and industrial processing into cooking oil and animal feed. approximately 87% of the annual demand for soybean in the country is for industrial purposes, of which 67% is used for animal feed, especially in the poultry industry, 13% 7 for oil and 7% for human food processing, whilst about 13% is for producer household retention as seed and consumption.
Production of soybean in ghanta has increased steadily from about 113,000 metric tons in 2009 to a little over 200,000 metric tons in 2020, while domestic demands is in the excess of about 300,000 metric tons.
Ghana’s annual soybean production potential is 700,000 metric tons covering an area of about 250,000 hectares, while the area under cultivation of soybean is about 125,000 hectares.
Ghana’s combined processing and export gap is 228,000 metric tons, while imports (mainly processed soya meal) “amount to about 200,000 metric tons of grain equivalent.
Hence there is growing unmet market demand and unused processing-export capacity.
The main bottleneck is the lack of capacity for on medium and smallholder farmers to increase their annual soybean production with an additional 200,000 metric tons.
This supply gap provides an opportunity for job creation, poverty reduction and food security in the country, especially in the northern savannas, which produces about 90% of the country’s soybean and are among the deprived regions of ghana.
However, the domestic production is on subsistence basis under rainfed conditions, which is constrained by erratic rainfall as a result of climate change, lower crop yields (achievable yield of 1.7 t/ha vs potential yield of 3 t/ha), high cost of production and low elasticity of technical efficiency (0.89) which often results to low import-substitution.
The processing industry is confronted with several challenges, including insufficient materials for processing, limited access to credit and inefficient processing equipment.
To address the low soyabean yields under smallholder farming conditions, there is the need to facilitate the soya value chain such that smallholder farmers will be linked to input and output markets, finance, equipment, and information through larger commercial farmers and aggregators who have the capacity and incentive to invest in smallholder production.
These linkages will build the capacity of smallholder farmers to increase the efficiency of their farm businesses with improved production and post-harvest handling practices with an emphasis on processing to meet the ever increasing demands of the value chain.
The Sustainable Soyabean Production in Northern Ghana Project
In the quest to close the demand gap for Soyabean, the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) of Ghana in 2019 requested the International institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and its partners, namely Wageningen University, YARA International and YARA Ghana, to increase Soyabean production in Ghana by 200,000 ton per year as part of the “Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ)” initiative, in addition to the current 180,000 ton per year.
This Sustainable Soya bean project was therefore initiated in direct response to this request to meet the country’s domestic feed requirements for the farmed fish and poultry industries, thus substituting for the large quantities of imported soy-based products into Ghana.
Its aim is to provide a sustainable supply of Soyabean grains of sufficient quality in response to the proven local demand of 200,000 tons of Soyabean grains by 2024, thereby ensuring that the producers and all value chain partners, including smallholder Soyabean producers, generate sufficient margins to continue their engagement in the Soyabean value chain.
With strategic funding support from Norway, there Is a unique opportunity to generate large-scale impact through targeted support to a sustainable Soyabean initiative operating around a Public Private Partnership (PPP), facilitated by IITA and Yara with the engagement of strategic partners operating within the Soyabean value chain.
The project’s Vision is: ‘To materialize the multiple potential benefits of Soyabean to smallholder farmers and other value chain actors engaged in the food and feed sectors in Ghana.’
While Norway is investing in elements that are best covered with public financial support in the order of over three Million dollars for four years, the Ghana government’s support is in the form of subsidized inputs (seeds and fertilizers) through the PFJ program.
The project primary beneficiaries include 100,000 smallholder farmers (SHFs) who, by year 4 of the project, will generate a total gross income of 60 million dollars per year and of which 50% are currently, on average, growing 0.4 ha of Soyabean annually in 16 Districts of Northern Ghana.
The project also works with 300 extension officers and 500 farmer associations, building on existing structures.
The project operates around 4 Objectives:
(i) to facilitate Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) around market access, inputs information, mechanization, financial services and capacity development demands;
(ii) to engage with relevant government ministries for enabling conditions, project participation-support, and conducive policies;
(iii) to strengthen the Soyabean supply chain using ICT based information system; and
(iv) to develop the capacities of the primary and secondary target groups, extension
services, private sector partners and development partners.
The project collaborating with the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture has supported the soyabean supply chain actors since April 2021.
The 2-day meeting seeks to:
(i) Take stock of what has been achieved within 18 months (May 2021 -December 2022) of project implementation
ii) Discuss emerging issues affecting the soybean supply chain in Ghana.
iii) Initiate processes for the development of a strategic document for the development of the soybean industry in Ghana.
By Peter Quao Adattor
