Solutions

There is no substitute for food. However food go waste in Ghana due to lack of or poor infrastructure. As a result, farmers in rural areas find it really difficult to transport their harvest for sale in towns or cities. Transportation has become such a major problem to majority of farmers that the tons of food crops, cash crops, and other farm produce that go to waste is heartbreaking to say the least. Resulting in extensive lost of time and income to farmers in particular and the rural community in general. Thereby compounding the deplorable state of rural economy and livelihood for that matter. Evidently, the rural communities and farmers have been forgotten and abandoned by the authorities they work hard to feed. The lack of help from the government in the form of infrastructure or good road network as well as subsidies for farmers, has turned farmers who constitute maximum percent of rural population density; into the most poorest people in Ghana. Of these maximum percent are largely small
scale peasant farmers.

The major constraints affecting rural communities and farmers and their livelihoods are:

- Lack of infrastructure or inadequate road network.

- Lack of marketing opportunities.

- Price mechanism and abuse of pricing system.

- Post harvest waste of farm produce.

- Importation of same farm produce from abroad.

All the above lead to waste of food, food scarcity, poverty, unemployment, internal migration and economic depreciation. Farmers have been left out of trade opportunities emanating from the international and global economy. This is where TradeFood & Wealth comes into play.

Our mission and goals are to integrate the rural markets with the global economy by creating a trading strategy which will be acceptable to all parties. We will be going directly to the rural areas; to the farmers to be precise. We will solve the transportation problem by buying directly from the farmers. This will be done as soon as the harvest is done and at a fair and competitive prices. By so doing, the hard working farmers will be given the lifeline they desperately need for a better livelihood besides the ability to improve and develop their respective communities.

To avoid or reduce postharvest waste, storage places or warehouses will be built for famers to keep their produce until our collectors transport them; which will be done swiftly. This process will definitely create employment opportunities for both rural and urban unemployed. In communities where co-operatives exist, we will buy from them so as to support, develop and advance the existing Union or structure. Otherwise we will buy directly from source; that is, the farmers on their farm.

TradeFood & Wealth marketing plan is to sell these farm produce directly to the general public at an affordable prices on retail and wholesale bases. We will be setting up Discount Cash and Carry Depots at vantage locations. These will be serving the public at all times thereby cutting out middle men. They will be in a form of warehouse and super-store combined. There will effectively be two types of these Discount Cash and Carry Depots. The first trading strategy is to sell more and buy less in communities where population is high but farming is less. The second strategy is to buy more and sell less in communities where population is low but farming is the main economic activity. Employment opportunities will be created in our various depots as a result of jobs to be given to women as well as the unemployed youth in rural and urban communities. An affiliate program for women and market traders will also be setup by us. This will be in a form of providing them with our custom made stalls and farm produce (food crops) to sell in their respective local areas or streets; without any capital before hand. This program will create food availability at an affordable prices to everyone. Also, the stalls will be in close proximity to customers. Thereby minimizing the patronage of low quality imported and expensive foreign food or farm produce. This program will improve and enhance the living standards of petty traders who are mostly women.

There will also be an online platform setup for trade of these farm produce. Our online Discount Cash and Carry stores will be serving customers who wish to buy online. There will be a free delivery service as well as order online, and pay and collect at depot service. Our website will be user-friendly and interactive.

Bearing in mind that the quantity of farm produce we will be buying will be too much for local consumption alone, we will seek to export some of these produce abroad. We have identified some of Europe's discount grocery stores like Lidl & Aldi who sell food produce grown in developing countries. Surprisingly, Ghana is not one of the countries they import from. So we will seek to supply our farm produce to these discount stores and their like on a contractual basis.

Lidl is one of the largest grocery retailers in Europe. It has over three thousand two hundred stores in Germany alone and more all over Europe. Aldi on the other hand is a discount supermarket chain with over ten thousand stores all over Europe.

We will be facilitating the integration of rural Ghanaian markets with the global economy by striving to sell our quality farm produce to these chain of discount stores. The benefit of this integration will reach down to the hard working farmers. In that, TradeFood & Wealth will setup a team of professionals to educate farmers on how to grow and harvest quality farm produce based on tried and tested research work. The rural communities will be better skilled in their respective fields to reach international or global standards. Our quality controllers will ensure that our farm produce are at par or better than produce from other countries.

In support of our zero waste policy, farm produce (food crops) that are good but otherwise cannot be sold, will be donated to children's homes, women’s organizations, hospitals, the poor and the needy across the country.

After all the above said, the post harvest food waste is a major challenge which needs to be solved. We at TradeFood & Wealth are determined to take a bold and smart step in initiating our concept of tackling it. Our mission is to help solve the poverty problem in rural communities and economies by improving their living standards to global level. We are convinced that this concept will be viable to all stakeholders involved. It is evident that its feasibility will require huge capital and big workforce to have the expected impact. We will be the first to initiate this unique opportunity to our advantage before any competitor comes on the scene.

ABOUT OUR TEAM

We are a small Team of family-run business.

The solution (TradeFood & Wealth) to the challenge "Innovation for Inclusive Trade"; is drafted and written by Halima Mohammed-Sanni. I am a Creative Designer (Graphic & Website, etc) and a start-up Entrepreneur of Small Medium-sized Enterprise (SME).

Our Europe based advisor is F. Mohammed-Sanni. She also helped in drafting and contributed to the solution.

Salma Mohammed-Sanni, a graduate of University of Ghana, heads the finance section of the business.

Last but not the least, Bariya Mohammed-Sanni is the head of administration. All contributed one way or the other in writing the solution.