IFDC launches 50th anniversary celebration in Accra

• A pannel discussion during the event
Photo: Godwin Ofosu-Acheampong

The 50th anniversary celebration of the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), which seeks to strengthen partnership with key national agricultural stakeholders and improve food security and livelihood in Ghana and beyond, was yesterday launched in Accra.

The event, which coincided with the 2024 IFDCs Open Door events (Exhibitions), aims at showcasing achievement and success stories of the centre.

It is being organised under the theme ‘Developing Agriculture from the Ground up; The Role of Public-Private Partnership in improving Soil Health in Ghana’.

Activities planned for the year-long celebration include media engagements, special events, honouring of partners and farmers in countries where IFDC works and will be climaxed by a staff retreat for all IFDC staff in Darker, Senegal.

The Director of IFDC Enabling Impact Programme, Dr Boucar Diagana, expressed the organisation’s commitment to advancing sound agricultural practices, fostering proven innovations to promote food security that will benefit millions of vulnerable people in Ghana.

He stated that despite the efforts, the challenges confronting agricultural value chain actors, especially smallholder farmers from the global level as well as Climate challenges, continued to worsen.

Within these challenges, Dr Diagana explained, lie opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and progress, adding, “It is imperative that we harness the collective expertise and resources of all our global and national partners, including the private sector and farmers, to address these challenges effectively”.

IFDC, he stated, was dedicated to promoting relevant technologies, soil fertility management, crop productivity, agricultural value chains, market information systems, and supportive policy on both public and private sector development in the agriculture sector.

The Director indicated that through the four pillars of global strategy, a lot of expertise has been sunk in researching & developing appropriate technologies, soil health & farm productivity, market, and food systems development, and creating an enabling environment to catalyse positive change and drive inclusive growth in the agricultural sector.

He said IFDC has been working in Ghana since 2002 and its long valuable partnership with the Government of Ghana, through its Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), has invested more than 22 million Ghana Cedis in the country through the implementation of various projects.

The Acting Country Director for IFDC Ghana, Judith Fagbegnon Kodjo, in a welcome address, said IFDC’s vision was to build healthier soils and plants for a food-secure and environmentally sustainable world.

Working together, she indicated, is the only way to achieve a world without hunger, adding, “Strategic partnerships underpin our work to bridge the gaps between research, farmers markets and a supportive, enabling environment.

The 50th anniversary will showcase core capacity in soil health research and approaches in addressing food security issues for the future while series of 20 open doors to be held worldwide.

BY LAWRWNCE VOMAFA-AKPALU