OBENG PRIME: PARTNERSHIP FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAIN

Ghana's agricultural sector is of strategic importance to the economy. It contributes about 21.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), remains the largest employer. Government is seeking to unlock an estimated $20-billion-dollar potential market in the agri-business value chain in Ghana by 2030.

Government of Ghana has implemented many flagship Programs aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and unlocking opportunities for potential and existing agribusinesses in prioritized value-chains, including rice, soybean, tomato, maize and poultry.
The Obeng Prime Agricultural Project is a collaboration between government and key sector institutions in Ghana to improve food production in Ghana. The collaboration is aimed at increasing food production to bridge the food supply gap in Ghana and boost the local economy. This project is being championed by Asian African Corporation. The approach is to partner and collaborate with key industry players in the value chains in rice, maize, soybean, poultry and tomato.
Obeng Prime is requesting an expression of interest (EOI) from potential agribusiness value chain experts to partner the Obeng Prime Agricultural Project to render all or any of the following:  Investment;  Technical Advisory Services;  Management Services;  Turnkey Solutions. The strategies of the Obeng Prime Agricultural Project seek to address the challenges below and therefore the call for this EOI.

Rice
Ghana's rice self-sufficiency ratio stands at 37% with a high import dependency ratio of 63%. Under this prevailing condition, rice producers and the country at large, lose potential revenue and foreign exchange earnings annually. Although policies and strategies have been implemented over the years to significantly address this, the rice industry faces several challenges. The current average national output for rice under rainfall conditions stands at 3.3 T/ha which is below the potential yield of 6.0 T/ha.
Other key challenges along the value chain include poor rice quality due to limited adoption of improved technologies (improved varieties, production technologies, processing equipment, etc.), limited access to inputs and support services, high cost of mechanization services, limited extension advisory services, insecurity of land tenure systems, sociocultural barriers limiting women's participation, low investment and inadequate working capital, poor transportation and storage infrastructure, inadequate irrigation facilities, and limited institutional capacities.
The proposed intervention must seek to address the challenges outlined above from preproduction, through to post-harvest activities along the entire rice value chain to improve production and enhance the value chain competitiveness.

Poultry
Poultry products are a common source of protein for many Ghanaians. As such, there is a great demand for poultry. In fact, per data from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), the average national, requirement for poultry was about 244,000 metric tons from 2018 to 2020. Ironically, domestic poultry production was significantly low. Over the same period, local production recorded an average of 64,000 metric tons-representing an average local production shortfall of 180,000 annually.
To address the above issue, Ghana has had to depend heavily on imported chicken. Using 2018 to 2020 as the reference period, MoFA estimates that the volume of imported chicken stood at an average of 260,000 tons (valued at US$ 370,000,000. The sheer amount of foreign exchange committed to poultry imports contributes to the reasons for the weakening of the local currency, a problem which requires immediate solutions to strengthen the national economy.

Tomato
Tomato and related products constitute one of the highly consumed vegetables/fruits in Ghana. From sauces to soups, they form a critical ingredient in almost every Ghanaian meal. Tomatoes are mainly cultivated within the central forest to northern savannah zones of the country. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (2020), production cycles can span from December to April (mainly irrigated production in northern Ghana) and then continue with rain fed production.
National tomato consumption is estimated at 450,000 tons (FAO, 2019). However, local production of the commodity falls short. According to 2019 data from MoFA, domestic tomato production is around 420,000 tons. The gap in demand and supply is often addressed with imports estimated at 7000 tons/year (FAO, 20194): with the need to promote import substitution and ensure sustainable food security, EEP has prioritized investments in national tomato production.

Maize
Maize is one of the most consumed cereals in Ghana. IFPRI reports total maize supply in 2016 was approx. 1,940,000 tons (90% national, 10% import). Of the total maize marketed (1,070,000 tons), about 25% used for processing industries, 33% was used as feed for animals (including poultry) and 45% consumed by households. In effect about 58% of marketed maize was put to nondomestic use while only 45% were used for domestic purposes.
Considering that maize forms a great component of feed for animals like poultry, it is important for Ghana to increase production to help enhance domestic poultry production.

Soybean
Soybean production is of high economic importance and nutritive value to many countries globally. In Ghana, the soybean commodity is prioritized and promoted in the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policies as a food and nutrition security and income generation crop. While the country is currently self-sufficient in soybean production for household consumption, annual production falls short of what is required for use in animal feed formulations. In meeting this domestic feed requirement, the country imports significant quantities of soy-based products annually (85,238 MT in 2017;127,453 MT in 2018).
Production of soybean is dominated by smallholder farmers cultivating an average of 2 ha of land. The national average yield of this legume, under rain-fed conditions is 1.7 T/ha, representing 53.7% of the potential yield of 3.0 T/ha. In the presence of this untapped production potential lie some critical challenges that require attention. They include limited availability/access to quality seeds of improved varieties, poor seed storage conditions and infrastructure and nonadherence to GAPs (IFJ8, 2018).

Development of cooperation
Companies, consultants and service providers can express their interest in cooperation and providing the services to Obeng Prime Agricultural Project by representing following information:  Core business and numbers of years in business;  Firm capacity, technical and managerial Organization of Firm;  Availability of appropriate skills among staff of the firm;  Firm's experience in similar projects;  Value of similar projects executed by the firm. All interested parties can send Expression of Interest (EOI) to our local partners in Russia: gabse@yandex.ru (+7-960-241-29-09), sales@obengprime.com (+7-900-623-90-32).