Tamanaa Company Limited is an agribusiness company engaged in the production, processing, packaging and marketing of rice. The company operates in six districts. In 2020, it diversified into maize and soybean. Before joining the MADE programme in 2017, Tamanaa focused solely on aggregating and selling paddy rice in the domestic market; it has now expanded into the parboiling and processing of rice into different blends. The company is the main supplier of rice to DAFA Stock and LANEN Ventures. Tamanaa provides its farmers with inputs such as fertiliser and seeds on credit, which are paid for after their produce is harvested and sold. The raw products are sourced mainly from contract farmers organised into farmer-based organisations. Tamanaa currently works with 4,000 smallholders (of which 55% are women), with each farmer cultivating an average of 2 acres. In the previous year alone, the combined volume of produce aggregated and processed at the company’s processing facility was 9,600 MT.
MADE interventions
- Recruited, trained and deployed ten Farm Enterprise Advisors (FEAs) and one FEA manager responsible for training and monitoring, from planting to harvest.
- Provided and facilitated links with tractor service suppliers to supplement the use of company tractors to plough for the client farmers.
- Provided demonstrations on good, sustainable agricultural practices
- Provided training on contract farming obligations to address the issue of side-selling.
- Established block farms for women farmers as a way to stem the tide of seasonal migration to urban centres in southern Ghana.
- Established relationships with produce-buying companies. Supplied rice to the School Feeding Programme through another company with a contract to supply six regional high schools directly.
Impacts
- Increased smallholder outreach from 1,500 to the current figure of 4,000 over a three-year period.
- Increased rice yield from 0.4 MT to 2 MT per acre as a result of smallholder farmers’ adoption of good agricultural practices.
- Created employment opportunities for economically disadvantaged groups. Up to 1,500 women are engaged in the processing, marketing and distribution operations of the company. A new extension to the processing facility is designed to create 400 new jobs for women and youth.
- Kept women away from the dangers of migration to urban areas, through the provision of block farming opportunities.
