1. COMPANY PROFILE

2. background
Agriaccess Ghana Limited is a limited liability company incorporated under the Ghana Company code, 1963 (ACT 179), by the registrar general department with registration number CA-96,354 in the year The company was formed out of strong desire to transform lives and impact society through Agriculture, which serves as the major sector for employment and likelihood for our rural communities in Ghana. Agriaccess Limited has positioned itself as a leading sorghum aggregator in Ghana, supporting thousands of farmers in the process. In 2014, the company committed US$1.27 million in investment to provide inputs to the out-grower market. Located in Wa, in the Upper West region of Ghana, Agriaccess established the country’s first ever sorghum supply chain; a value chain that did not exist ten years ago. Using a combination of its own farms, out-grower contracts, and guarantees to farmers, the company began with 50 metric tonnes of sorghum production and has increased to nearly 6,000 metric tonnes over the years. Sorghum can be a difficult crop to grow in this region of the world, often offering low yields. Agriaccess has tackled this and a number of hurdles by instituting innovative solutions. The company is currently the largest supplier of sorghum to Ghana Guinness Breweries Limited (GGBL), with an annual supply contract of 4,000 metric tonnes. Agriaccess is the first company in Ghana to implement a legally binding contract between aggregators and an off-taker. The three-year contract with GGBL runs through 2017, and gives some security to the otherwise volatile local sorghum market, allowing farmers to commit more resources without fear of risk.

3. Our Objectives
Becoming stalwart in enhancing agricultural commodity production and marketing in both local and international markets by building a competitive edge in quality and quantity of supplies;
Establishing a vibrant and formidable lead in the supply chain management in our operational theme, working to ensure accountability, integrity, reliability, accessibility and dependability with our stakeholders;
And also to improve the living standards of farmers by improving performance to reducing post harvests loses by adhering to best practices and methods, with the application of modern technology. From its inception till now, Agriaccess Ghana Limited can boldly Affirm based on its production and operations that these Objectives are being met and even exceeded.
Core Business Agriaccess Ghana limited in its business operation seeks to undertake the following:1. To 1.Produce, Supply and trade in Agricultural Commodities; 2. Supply of farm inputs to farmers; 3. To Facilitate farmers to access farm machinery, warehousing and post harvest facilities; 4. To Disseminate new technologies to farmers through research; 5. To serve as financial intermediary to farmers (Access to Credit).

4. Technical Services Input Supplies Business Development
SERVICES PROVIDED
Technical Services
Input Supplies
Business Development
Training on best agronomical practices through SARI, MoFA etc
Extension services and on-farm demonstrations through our Field officers and MoFA extension officers
Provision of inputs such as fertilizer, seed, ploughing services etc.
Provision of post-harvest materials such us tarpaulins
Training in business development and commercialization of their activities
Training on record keeping and cost analysis

5. STRUCTURES ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE
MANAGING DIRECTOR
SITE MANAGER
SITE SUPERVISOR
SITE WORKIERS
FEILD OFFICERS
PROCUREMENT OFFICER
OPERATIONS MANAGER

6. STRUCTURES: RELATIONSAL STRUCTURE

7. STRUCTURE: INPUT SUPPORT & TRACKING
• Agriaccess has extension officers who monitor the fields and support nucleus farmers to ensure they provide support to out-growers with regards to best agronomy practices, inputs supply/application and post-harvest management issues.
• Out-growers are organized through community based farmer groups, which have an elected executive member (called lead farmer). Agriaccess’ nucleus farmers currently manage farmers each.
• The nucleus farmer signs up the farmers and hands the contracts over to the Agriaccess’ extension officers or field officer. These officers, unlike the nucleus farmers, are company employees. The extension officer organizes the inputs and supplies them with the lead farmer. They visits 1-3 times per month and assesses the advancement of the group’s production and the distribution/application of the inputs.

8. SORGHUM FROM FARMER TO OFTAKER
FARMERS
Cultivation, Threshing and bagging
NUCLEUS FARMER
Mobilization & payment
AGRIACCESS GHANA LIMITED
Quality checks, Rebagging and loading to GGBL
Once sorghum is planted and it goes through all the stages till harvesting, it is the duty of the farmer to thresh and bag them.
Once they have been bagged, Agriaccess field officers together with the nucleus farmer go round and weigh the bagged sorghum so as to confirm the quantities produced by the individual farmers in order to prepare and come back for payment and mobilization
After weights have been confirmed, field Officers together with the Nucleus farmer set a date/timeline for mobbing the produce, this is communicated to the individual farmers.
On the set dates, field officers together with the nucleus farmer go round to pickup sorghum and then also buy any excesses after the farmer has paid off he’s/her credit.

9. Operations: NUCLEUS FARMER MODEL
AgriAccess uses a “nucleus” system, grouping farmers in teams of five to eight. Each group then “elects their leader to serve as the contact and the mouthpiece of the group, Prices are mutually agreed upon based on the cost of production for the season.” Agreed-upon prices remain fixed, typically for a year. In this model, aggregators provide all inputs to smallholders on a credit basis, to be repaid after the harvest.
While issues in working with smallholders still sometimes arise, the nucleus model discourages common problems like side-selling, diversion of inputs, and under-declaration of produce. If one farmer is found engaging in misconduct or in breach of agreements, the entire group is held accountable. The threat of collective consequences deters farmers from engaging in malpractices, lest they incriminate the entire group. The nucleus farmer selects his farmers on the bases of credibility and integrity because he must come from the community and must be resident in the community. Placing responsibility for credit repayment on a member situated within the community, instead of on an outside credit lender, results in a much less default rate than in traditional smallholder models.

10. Pricing Model Prices are reviewed annually
Cost of production is the basis for pricing
Prices are mutually agreed upon and once agreed remains fixed for the period.
Inputs and all services provided by Agriaccess are on credit and repaid with sorghum after harvest.
The sorghum received is then processed, packaged and delivered to the off-taker - GGBL.

11. Operations: SCOPE OF OPERATIONS
NUCLEUS FARMER MANAGEMENT
EXTENSION SERVICES
DEMO FEILDS
CLEANING AND BAGGING SITE
GGBL
Invoicing
Document tracking

12. IMPACT ASSESSMENT
over 2000 farmers provided with credit; received training and extension advise
Other beneficiaries:- over 3000 farmers guaranteed market access (farmers who sell their sorghum to GGBL through AGL)
Over 200 temporal jobs created in the value chain and 12 permanent employees
Other Jobs Created: there are others created along the chain such as input suppliers, transporters that are difficult to quantify. For example so far we’ve generated over GHS300,000 to transporters .
Revenue to Districts and Municipal Assemblies- we contribute to the local government revenue generation. We have so far paid GHS39,200 as revues to the local authorities
and in transforming the livelihood of rural farmers. Many are able to build better homes, pay their children school fees etc.

13. IMPACT ASSESSMENT: FARMER DATA

14. SORGHUM: THE CROP PROTOCOLS
Agriaccess Current
Operations
Machine/Implement
Days after Sowing
Land Clearing (especially for new lands)
Manual
-14
Ploughing
Tractor -7
Harrowing -2
Planting (untreated seed)
Weeding Thinning and Transplanting 14
Basal Fertilizer (NPK) application
14-21 (done after weeding and depending on moisture conditions)
Second fertilizer (SA) application-Top Dressing
35-40
Second Weeding(Ridging
35-40 ( after top dressing)
Monitoring at each stage of the activities to ensure compliance
Bi-weekly visits thereafter till harvesting

15. Supply Volumes (MT)
Sorghum head

16. Agriaccess Revenue

17. CHALLENGES/CONSTRAINS
Constraints include.
Lack of certified seeds to increase production, Most of our farmers are using seeds for the past five years, which has reduced the potential of the seed because of cross pollination.
Delay in input supplies: Fertilizer which is crucial to the main production sometimes come late due to delays from suppliers, which impacts negatively on the yield.
Cleaning facilities: We need a modern cleaning facility to process sorghum to meet GGBL standard and also improve on the delivery cycle. Cleaning could separate the seed size and purity to meet the standard of GGBL. ( however currently this is being worked on together with GGBL)
Lack of farm Machinery: Tractors, threshers, harvesters and other machinery needed to produce on large scale are lacking. The difficulty farmers go through to harvest, thresh and store sorghum does not give them the appetite to produce on large scale.