Soya industry attracts attention of Venture Capital Trust Fund

The Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) wants a substantial portion of its Agricultural Fund to go into soya value chain.

The Fund’s Board recently approved the Gh20million facility to promote agricultural financing.

According to Chief Executive Officer of the Trust Fund, Daniel Duku, there are potentials in the soya industry which requires adequate funding.

“That is why we will be convincing the Board to allocate a portion of the Agric Fund to the soya industry,” he said.

The VCTF established the Soya Value Chain Project with the objective of financing seed germination and production of soya beans for the poultry industry.

The initiative targets nucleus farmers, out-growers and farmer-based organizations to build partnerships with key institutions, especially incubators and centres of innovation, to promote entrepreneurship.

Oil miller, Kwasi Akomea Kyemanteng, has his company processing soya beans into soya cake and oil to mainly serve the local poultry industry.

He says there are dire constraints in the soya value chain, including access to soya beans as raw material for processing, power crisis and the preference of poultry farmers to source foreign feed.

“Ghana should put in place policies that will ensure the value chain in Ghana works,” he said.

It has been observed farmers prefer growing maize and cowpea due to the pricing advantage compared to the low prices of soya.

To promote soya production, the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has a critical role to play in the entire value chain.

Increasing the linkage between research, farmers and extension remains critical to improve production levels, says Dr. Stephen Amoah, research scientist at the CRI.

His Institute has been developing improved crop varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases and others that are resistant or tolerant to shattering, which is a major production constraint.

Dr. Amoah says provision of adequate information to farmers and extension requires regular funding sources to sustain the service.

The Venture Capital Trust Fund is seeking an alliance with the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) to grow the agriculture sector.

“There is the need for us to be able to work together. We have started this initiation with the Minister [of Agriculture] who is quite enthused and optimistic that this can grow. So all sectors of agric is going to be looked at with this alliance,” Mr. Duku stated.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh