Founding
Sakfos Farms Limited was incorporated in February 21, 1994 as a value chain operator by Dr. Michael Abu Sakara Foster and his wife, Mrs. Mary-Lily Kafela Foster. It is currently a family farm with 80% shareholding to Dr. Sakara and remaining 20% shareholding to Mrs. Foster. The farm has five key components that include:
- Large scale mixed commercial farming enterprise under irrigation and rain fed
- Seed production
- Agricultural mechanization services within its catchment area
- Integrated agro-processing facility on site
The Sakfos Farms value chain operation is planned in three main phases that will eventually culminate in a large commercial scale production operation supported by an agricultural mechanization services center and also to be complemented with an integrated agro-processing facility.
Our History
The nucleus farm operation currently comprises 300 acres of land cultivated to rice and soya beans in the rainy season, and 120 acres of land cultivated to vegetables (sweet-corn, pepper, ginger, okra, melon) under a central pivot irrigation system in the dry season. A total of three cropping periods are obtained in a one year cycle. Sakfos Farms Products are being tailored to both the domestic and export markets.
Inception
Preparations - At its inception in 1994, a 346 acre tract of land was acquired at Buipe town to house its first farm structures for workers and also for establishing seed stock of plants and animals. A skeletal staff was recruited. Minimal capital equipment and infrastructure for operations was procured. A 70 acre cashew seed stock farm and 50 heard breeding stock of cattle was established within first three years.
In 2012 a three thousand hectare parcel of land was allocated to Sakfos Farms within a block of 50,000 hectares that is available to Sakfos Farms for expansion under joint venture initiatives. Since then operations of the phase one have heightened in earnest to establish the nucleus farm at Sur River Valley and link it up to out-growers predominantly between Buipe and Damongo.
Development of out-growers
In 2007 Sakfos Farms limited established Sakfos-Amsec, an agricultural mechanization center, as a subsidiary in partnership with Buuwuloso Rural bank and based it at Damongo. Sakfos-Amsec provides farm services to over 22 villages and serviced a few hundred small holder farmers on more than 1000 acres as out-growers and cultivate mostly maize and cow peas. Sakfos Farms now wholly owns Sakfos-Amsec after buying out Buuwuloso Rural Bank. Sakfos-Amsec continues to collaborate with various NGOs to provide farm services in the catchment area and serves as purchasing center from Sakfos Farms out-growers.
Established nucleus farm & irrigation facilities
Sakfos Farms value chain operations began in 2012 at its nucleus farm on the Sur River where 3000HA farm land was obtained from the Mankpang Division of Gonja and is being mapped for registration. So far a US1.8m dollar irrigation system has been installed giving a potential irrigable area of 400 HA of which 50 HA is fully functional. Irrigated crop of sweet corn has been grown and harvested with good market response.
Established seed farming operations and link to markets
Sakfos Farms from the outset aimed to bulk and keep its own seed in order to ensure quality and uniformity of final produce. Sakfos Farms bulked Jasmine rice variety for use on the farm and for sale to out-growers. The demand has subsequently picked up and expanded under a partnership with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute.
A variety of seeds are now produced and sold annually these include, soya beans, sorghum and other rice varieties. Recently Sakfos Farms has entered into contract with Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to produce and supply certified seeds to meet demand of Ghana government's recent initiative “Planting for Food and Jobs” in amounts of 1000MT of Sorghum (2 varieties), 400MT of Soya beans (2 varieties) and 300MT of Jasmine Rice. Sakfos Farms management seeks funding to expand operational capacity required to meet its seed contracts volumes and also to advance the vertical integration of the value chain by installing processing capacity for soya oil mill, vegetable packing and grain cleaning and storage. To this end management has approached the National Investment Bank, the EXIM Bank of Ghana formerly the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF).
Competitive advantage for products and services.
Sakfos Farms products and services include:
- Seeds of cereals and legumes in collaboration with sari
- Soya bean value chain products (soya beans, vegetable oil and soya cake)
- Rice value chain products (paddy rice, milled rice, rice bran)
- Packed vegetables for domestic and export market (chillies, okra, ginger, melons and sweet corn)
- Poultry feed products agricultural mechanization services including a machine tool workshop
Competitive advantage for seed products
Sakfos Farms Seed products have a strong competitive edge for quality and reliability because of our close collaboration with SARI which is Ghana's premiere agricultural research institution based in the Savannah Belt. This collaboration ensures access to best breeder and foundation seed and also technical collaboration for the production of best quality seed. In recent tests (2017) soya bean seed germination samples form Sakfos Farms scored 99.99 percent germination and were true to type at grade A level.
A competitive edge for Sakfos seed also accrues from having direct market access for bulk purchases from projects, seed traders and large scale farmers through SARI's seed unit. The latter is Ghana's first port of call for bulk seed purchases of legumes and cereals in the savannah ecology. Demand for seed of rice and soya beans is high due to acute shortage of recognized certified seed for existing current planted areas to Soya beans (25,000HA ) and Rice. The current national drive to increase use of improved seed as well as increase planted area to rice and soya beans also bolsters demand for certified seeds.
Currently less than 30% of the seed demand for rice and 10 % seed demand for soya beans is being met. The seed market therefore has potential to grow by at least 300 mt/annum for rice and 500 mt/annum for soya beans. Above all Sakfos Farms irrigation facilities allow timely production of seeds for markets and also permits seeds to be fresh from dry season productions. The Ghana National Seeds Certification Unit regulates the seed industry and has stringent measures for adherence seed standards and the national seed policy. The National Seed Certification supervises the seed production process to ensure compliance. The research stations are obliged to provide support to empower private seed farms to meet seed standards. Both seed producers and seed traders are monitored and evaluated by the National Seed Certification unit.