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Maize and Rice farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region, who face challenges in drying their grains after harvest, can heave a sigh of relief as the Ghana Grains Council (GCC) kick starts renovating thirty-four (34) weak warehouses in the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions to enable farmers dry their grains.

This comes at a time where grain marketers and farmers in areas like Wenchi, Buoku and Nkoranza had called on government to assist them surmount the challenges they encounter in drying their farm produce after harvest.

In an interview with Peacefmonline.com in Sunyani, Richard Dzanie, the Business Development and Outreach Manager of GGC, said they had observed that stakeholders in the grain value chain had challenges with storage facilities and in drying their grains.

According to Mr Dzanie, the warehouses will serve thousands of farmers in these two regions who have difficulty in drying their grains.

He said apart from collaborating with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) for favourable government policies towards the grain industry, the GGC will, in September, "initiate and develop a new Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) to ensure that food coming through the grain value chain is safe."

He mentioned that sixteen (16) deplorable private manual warehouses for farmers associations had been chosen to be refurbished while others receive dryers, moisture metres, weighing scales and tarpaulins in the Nkoranza, Badu, Techiman,Wenchi, Ejura and the Atebubu areas to reduce post harvest losses.

Mr Dzanie said WRS project, which is responsible for certifying and enforcing agreed standards for the grains industry, would be sponsored by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) with support from the Ghana Standards Authority and the Food and Drugs Authority who are to ensure farmers uphold standards for grain safety.

In the latter part of August, MOFA partnered the GGC and PTB to organise a training workshop in Sunyani for over 50 stakeholders in the grain value chain,which sought to ensure standards were held high in the rice and maize Marketing industry.