Dr Gideon Edu Onumah

Biography

Dr Gideon Edu Onumah is a Ghanaian national and has been with NRI for over 14 years. He has been working on African agricultural production, marketing and finance systems as well as on rural/micro finance issues. He has undertaken considerable desk and field research in agricultural commodity sectors, using a range of analytical tools, including value chain analysis, transaction cost analysis and the institutional framework to identify opportunities in the agricultural sector as well as institutional innovations which enhance the capacity of producers and other stakeholders to exploit and benefit from such opportunities. His experience in the commodity sectors includes both food crops, especially grains as well as export crops. Dr Onumah is that the forefront of the promotion of modern agricultural marketing and finance institutions such as the warehouse receipt system and functional agricultural commodity exchanges. He is currently leading a team of Europe-based experts (under AGRINATURA-EEIG) who are collaborating with African farmers' organisations in promoting market-based farm risk management tools which can benefit smallholder farmers. The project which is called Farm Risk Management for Africa (FARMAF) is funded by the European Union.

Research Interest

Main interests include development and promotion of sustainable systems to foster access by smallholder farmers to finance, remunerative output markets and farm risk management. The outcome of research and pilots undertaken by Dr Onumah and his colleagues were incorporated in projects to develop efficient crop marketing systems in especially Africa – with funding from different donors including the Common Fund for Commodities, USAID, FAO and the World Bank. Governments which have benefited from these projects include Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana and Ethiopia. The research efforts and pilots undertaken on farm risk management by smallholder farmers has also been utilised in formulating a project being implemented in collaboration with farmers' organisations in Africa to promote access to sustainable, market-based tools which smallholder farmers can use to manage farm risks.