The Minister of Food and Agriculture of Ghana has requested N2Africa and Yara to boost soyabean production in northern Ghana as part of the “Planting for Food and Jobs” initiative. Here we report on progress.
On 5 November 2018, an N2Africa team comprising of Ken, Bernard, Theresa and Samuel and a team from Yara, comprising of Derick Tuffour, Danquah Addo-Yobo and Øystein Botillen, met at the IITA office in Accra, Ghana to discuss the possibility of forming a partnership around soyabean to continue with N2Africa project with possible funding from Norwegian government. Present at the meeting were also two IITA scientists; Dr. Richard Asare, coordinator for CocoaSoils and Dr. Fred Kizito, IITA country rep for Ghana. We also met with Forster Boateng, Country Manager for AGRA who expressed enthusiasm to collaborate on this initiative.
On 6 November, the N2Africa and Yara team visited the Norwegian Embassy in Accra to present and discuss with them what we have called the Sustainable Soya Initiative. The team then went on to the Ministry of Agriculture and discussed with the Deputy Minister who confirmed the request to N2Africa and Yara. Further to these discussions, the team developed a concept note on how best to address the challenge and opportunity.
Following this, Yara invited a small group of experts and leaders to a roundtable discussion in Oslo. The roundtable discussion was preceded by presentations by Ken and Bernard on the 14 March at Norad office in Oslo and at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
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The Sustainable Soya Roundtable took place on 15 March 2019 at the Yara Headquarters in Oslo. A wide range of stakeholders joined the discussion, including representatives from Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norfund, Norad, Yara International, a number of Norwegian feed companies, GIZ, AGRA and the N2Africa team of Ken, Bernard, Theresa and Samuel. Photo: A roundtable discussion among a small group of invited experts and leaders, hosted by Yara International in Oslo addressed a wide range of soya related issues. Photo: Camilla Nyhuus Christensen, Yara, |
| The Roundtable started with a series of short introductory presentations, a wide-ranging brainstorming and an in-depth discussion. There was general support in the room to establish a public-private partnership for a Sustainable Soya Initiative. The N2Africa team have been charged with preparing a roadmap and business case for the initiative and this work is already underway. |
Theresa presenting at Yara HQ |
Samuel Adjei-Nsiah, N2Africa Country Coordinator for Ghana