Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in her capacity as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA), has visited Ghanaian agribusinesses working with IDH Ghana to examine how locally led enterprises are connecting smallholder farmers to markets, finance and decent jobs.
The visit highlights IDH Ghana’s approach to strengthening agricultural markets by working with businesses and public and private sector partners to address barriers to growth for farmers and agribusinesses.
Through support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that aggregate, process and sell agricultural produce, IDH seeks to build stronger commercial relationships across value chains, create more reliable opportunities for rural communities and improve the financial health of rural households.
The approach comes as Ghana seeks to boost domestic food production and strengthen the resilience of its agricultural value chains. IDH argues that increased production alone is not enough to secure better incomes or a more reliable food supply. Farmers also need dependable buyers, businesses require access to finance, and produce needs viable routes to market and adequate processing capacity.
“Ghana’s agricultural opportunity is not only about growing more food; it is about building the markets that allow farmers and businesses to thrive,” said Robert Asugre, Country Director of IDH Ghana.
“By connecting smallholders to buyers, finance and enterprises that can aggregate and process their produce, we can help turn agricultural potential into more dependable incomes, jobs and stronger local food systems.”
Three Ghanaian businesses addressing a shared challenge
The visit featured three Ghanaian businesses working to strengthen agricultural value chains and improve opportunities for smallholder farmers.
FarmMate, a wholly Ghanaian-owned agricultural value-chain company established in 2022, works with tomato farmers to improve access to seeds, inputs, irrigation, technical advice, crop insurance and guaranteed seasonal prices.
The company connects farmers to markets and processes surplus tomatoes into puree, helping reduce post-harvest losses and extend supply beyond the main harvest season.
According to its partner profile, FarmMate provides guaranteed market access to more than 3,000 farmers and has an annual farmer payment potential of approximately US$12.5 million at full operational scale. Its operations are expected to support about 9,600 year-round farm jobs, with women and young people accounting for at least 70% of its hub workforce.
AgroCenta, a Ghanaian agri-fintech platform founded in 2016, connects grain farmers, particularly in Northern Ghana, with buyers, finance, market information, storage and logistics.
The platform’s farmer data can help financial institutions and investors assess creditworthiness, while its digital and on-the-ground services support producers to participate more competitively in formal value chains.
Since 2018, AgroCenta has facilitated the distribution of more than 70,000 metric tonnes of food. Its profile also reports a 50% increase in women’s participation as primary agricultural producers in the areas it serves.
WamiAgro serves more than 60,000 smallholder farmers across six regions through Pukpara, a platform that manages farm credit and provides access to quality inputs, training, financial literacy support and weather information in local languages.
The company reports that it has deployed more than US$600,000 in input finance to approximately 5,000 farmers, with a portfolio recovery rate of around 95%. It also reports yield increases of up to 44% among participating farmers.
Together, the three businesses demonstrate how different parts of the agricultural market system can work together: connecting producers to buyers, providing the services and financing needed for successful production, and improving the capacity to store, aggregate and process food.
These connections can help farmers manage risk, enable businesses to respond to market demand and retain more value within Ghana’s agricultural economy.
Building markets that work for farmers and businesses
IDH Ghana works with public and private sector partners across cocoa, grains, vegetables and soy. Its model focuses on strengthening SMEs that aggregate, process and sell farmers’ produce, while aligning incentives across value chains, unlocking buying commitments and addressing constraints that limit market participation.
Young women and youth are central to the organisation’s work.
Through Grains for Growth, a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation that ran from 2021 to 2024, IDH linked smallholder farmers with aggregating SMEs across five regions.
The programme’s factsheet reports that it reached 49,651 farmers, supported 170,745 young people to access work and enabled US$39.4 million in investment.
Building on this experience, the Women in Sourcing and Enterprise (WISE) programme works with SMEs across grains and agriculture, extending the market-led approach to crops including tomato, onion and chilli pepper.
In Ghana, WISE works with 16 SMEs across seven regions and targets 125,000 jobs, with 80% intended for young women and youth. The programme also operates in Nigeria and South Africa.
IDH’s Making Agrifood Markets Accessible for Soy Farmers (MAMA) programme, funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, is strengthening the soybean value chain in five northern regions from 2026 to 2028.
Working with partners including the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Yara Ghana and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the programme aims to reach 10,000 farmers, 60% of them women, and enable 20,750 jobs.
IDH says its broader objective is to help establish agricultural markets that can endure beyond individual projects—markets where farmers have dependable access to buyers, enterprises can attract investment and grow, and commercial activity contributes to inclusive livelihoods and long-term food system resilience.
