Spotlight: Agriterra’s Farmer-Focused Transformation

Last month, the GNBCC’s General manager, Hilde Famaey, visited the Agriterra team in Accra for a visit, an initiative we proudly conduct throughout the year to stay connected with our community. During the visit, the Agriterra team shared exciting details about one of their impactful projects currently running in Ghana: the Farmer-Focused Transformation (FFT2) programme.

Read the details below to learn how they are reshaping the agricultural landscape, and find out how you can get involved.

Farmer-Focused Transformation: Creating Strong Horticulture Cooperatives for a Prosperous and Resilient Agricultural Sector in Ghana

Across Ghana’s horticulture sector, a significant transformation is already underway, and Agriterra is at the centre of it. Through Agriterra’s Farmer-Focused Transformation (FFT2) Project, smallholder farmers are gaining the tools, structure, and market connections they need to move beyond fragmented, subsistence-level production and build resilient, commercially competitive cooperative businesses.

In 2026, Agriterra launched the second phase of this ambitious initiative with a clear and ambitious vision: to transform horticultural farmer organisations into strong, inclusive, and business-oriented cooperatives that deliver measurably better incomes, greater resilience, and stronger market competitiveness for twenty thousand Ghanaian farmers.

This second phase builds directly on the foundations laid by FFT1 (2021–2025), which demonstrated what becomes possible when cooperatives receive sustained, structured support. In Ghana’s cocoa sector, the Akyemansa Fine Flavour Cooperative is a case in point: through FFT1, the cooperative strengthened its financial management systems, secured a lending partnership with Pan-African Savings and Loans, and established a functioning Farmer Service Centre. By 2025, GHS 2.4 million in credit had been disbursed to over 300 members, enabling farmers to access inputs and services at the right time and improving yields and livelihoods. Equally telling is the story of West Akyem Cocoa Farmers Union, which was assessed under FFT1 but not initially onboarded. Rather than wait, its leaders acted on the feedback independently, strengthening governance and formalising structures, and returned to successfully join FFT2. These stories reflect the lasting value of FFT1: not just the results achieved, but the mindset it helped to cultivate.

The results so far speak for themselves. In the first phase of implementation alone, Agriterra has scoped, assessed, and onboarded eight horticultural cooperatives, collectively representing more than 12,000 smallholder farmers spread across Ghana. These include pineapple, mango, tomato, and pepper cooperatives. These cooperatives are, as such, strategically embedded in some of Ghana’s most important horticultural value chains, sectors that are central to food security, employment creation, income generation, and export growth.

But the numbers are only part of the story. These cooperatives represent something more fundamental: the future of farmer-led agribusiness transformation in Ghana. Ghana’s horticultural sector has long been held back by a familiar set of structural constraints: weak governance systems, limited access to finance, poor aggregation infrastructure, significant post-harvest losses, and insufficient bargaining power in increasingly competitive markets.

The FFT2 project directly addresses these gaps by helping cooperatives evolve into professional, self-reliant businesses capable of delivering real value to their members. Through tailored advisory services, milestone-based coaching, and hands-on capacity building, each cooperative receives targeted support to:

• Strengthen governance and financial management systems.
• Improve market access and commercial positioning.
• Develop sustainable farmer service centres.
• Build partnerships with financial institutions and buyers.
• Introduce climate-smart and productivity-enhancing technologies.
• Create employment opportunities for youth through cooperative business models.

This is not short-term project support. It is long-term, systemic change designed to build permanent institutional capacity within farmer organisations, capacity that endures well beyond the project itself. By 2030, Agriterra aims to work with 20 horticultural cooperatives reaching over 20,000 farmers across Ghana, creating a robust network of farmer-led enterprises capable of driving food systems transformation, reducing import dependency, boosting exports, and delivering lasting improvements to household incomes.

One of FFT2’s most distinctive features is its ability to connect Ghanaian cooperatives directly with world-class Dutch knowledge, technology, and innovation networks. Through active partnerships with Holland GreenTech, East-West Seed, Farmerline, and a range of financial sector actors, Ghanaian cooperatives are now gaining practical access to:

• Improved seed varieties.
• Climate-smart irrigation systems.
• Digital financial solutions.
• Market intelligence tools.
• Sustainable pest and soil management innovations.

Together, these partnerships are closing the knowledge, technology, and finance gaps that have historically constrained horticultural productivity and commercialisation in Ghana.

Get Involved

Are you a business, investor, or organisation looking to engage with Ghana’s growing horticulture sector? Agriterra welcomes partnerships that can accelerate cooperative development, improve market access, and drive agricultural innovation across Ghana. Reach out to learn more about the FFT2 project and how you can be part of this transformation.

Frank Oduro | Country Representative, Ghana +233 242 776 791 [email protected]