Project profile — Enhanced Agri-Food Value Chains Initiative in Ghana

• Ghana (100.00%)

• Basic Health: Basic nutrition (12240) (60.00%)
• Agricultural development:
Agricultural development (31120) (30.00%)
Food crop production (31161) (10.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (significant objective)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

The project aims to prevent stunting among children ages 6 to 23 months and address micronutrient deficiencies among pregnant and/or lactating mothers in select districts throughout Northern Ghana. This project is an integrated agricultural and nutrition value chain development initiative designed as a public-private partnership and implemented by the World Food Programme. There are three interconnected pillars to this project. Project activities include: (1) enhancing the capacity of smallholder farmers to produce safe, quality staples (maize, soybean, cowpea and millet) and facilitate market linkages and sales to select local food processors; (2) providing technical and financial support for the upgrading of local processing capacities to produce safe, specialized nutritious foods and unfortified blended flours using local raw materials; and (3) promoting locally produced, specialized nutritious foods for nutrition interventions in the Northern regions and promote their availability in local markets for the Ghanaian population at large.

The expected immediate outcomes for this project include: (1) improved local production of quality, safe, and market-integrated nutritious food staples by small-holder farmers, farmer organizations and out-growers; (2) enhanced local processing for complementary nutritious foods (e.g. super-cereals) by industrial and community-level processors; (3) increased consumption of high-nutrition staples, and complementary and fortified food by the general population, particularly women and children; and (4) enhanced food safety, quality and respect for standards among all stakeholders.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2021) include: (1) strengthened the capacity of 20,854 smallholder farmers (of whom 57% are women), in a variety of fields, including productivity enhancement, post-harvest loss reduction, contractual procedures and linkages to formal markets, such as those for aggregators and industrial processors, through a government extension and other development agency support; (2) facilitated high-quality nutritional products for 66,466 pregnant and lactating women in seven districts in the Northern and Ashanti regions. Maize, soybean and millet for the products, namely Maizoya and Tomvita, were provided by smallholder farmers and processed by Premium Foods and Yedent, the two local industrial processors; (3) facilitated the provision of Lipid-based nutrient supplements for 53,355 children between the ages of 6 and 23 months and 1,477 adolescent girls. A local industrial processor under an initiative entitled GrowNut provided the supplements; and (4) provided 13 small- and medium-scaled food processors with food safety and quality business development training. Three of these processors, all owned by Ghanaian women, were equipped with modern small-scale food processing facilities that enhance the capacity to produce local blended foods more safely and efficiently.

• Proactive disclosure