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The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Clement Kofi Humado, has debunked reports in sections of the media suggesting that the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) is up for divestiture. Some reports had claimed that government was looking at privatizing the Buffer Stock Company for lack of funds to run the vital State asset. However, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Clement Kofi Humado, responding to the report for the first time in an interview with Ultimate Radio in Kumasi, stated that the report is false. Although he admits that the company is not in a sound financial position, he says government is rather seeking private partnership in some specific areas of the company�s operations. The National Food Buffer Stock Company was set up in 2010, to address the problem of post harvest losses, ensure food security and protect farmers from unfavorable prices during bumper harvest. This became necessary as Ghana experiences post- harvest losses annually estimated between 25 and 30 per cent of total agricultural produce for all staple food crops including maize, rice, cassava, yams, sweet potatoes, sorghum, millet and pulses such as cowpeas, soya beans, groundnuts and beans. NAFCO among other roles is to mop up excess produce from all farmers in order to reduce post harvest losses resulting from spoilage due to poor storage, thereby protecting farmers� income. It is also charged to purchase, sell, preserve and distribute food stuffs to employ a buffer stock mechanism to ensure stability in demand and supply of local farm produce. One of its prime obligations is also to expand the demand for food grown in Ghana by selling to state institutions such as the military, schools, hospitals, prisons etc. and to manage governments emergency food security. Farmers especially in the three northern regions embraced the whole NAFCO project as it was going to guarantee them assured income by providing a minimum guaranteed price and ready market. NAFCO is however constrained by enormous funding challenges, making it operate way below its capacity. It has been revolving an initial investment by government of GHc15million. The amount is only 11.5% of the GHc 130million that the committee that worked on its establishment proposed. The company, which operates on a marginal profit basis, is thus unable to invest in storage facilities and mop up as much produce as it could. Warehousing has also been a major contributory factor to the woes of the company. The company inherited some warehouses with about 34,000 metric tonnes total capacity from the defunct Food Distribution Company. This woefully inadequate volume has close to half of the warehouses in deplorable conditions with most of them out of use. For the 2013/2014 crop season, the company hopes to mop up 15,000 metric tonnes of maize (300,000bags), 15,000 metric tonnes of rice and 1,000 metric tonnes of soya beans. A recent report published by some news websites stated that the Minister of Food and Agriculture Clement Kofi Humado had announced plans by government to privatize the National Food and Buffer Stock Company. The report was met with condemnations from some NGOs and civil society groups who warned against eminent hikes in local food prices if it the company was left in private hands. Responding to these concerns however, Mr. Kofi Humado categorically told the Ultimate Morning Show Host, Kofi Owusu that �government does not intend to privatize the National Food Buffer Stock Company�. He explained that the company had a twofold social and commercial mandate. He explained that the social aspect, which involved holding of adequate stocks as security for unforeseen natural disasters and mopping up of excess produce to protect farmers from unfair pricing, was not going to be left to any private entity. �The company has to hold adequate stocks to intervene in times of disasters like floods, droughts and bush fires. We also have to intervene in the markets when farm gate prices are falling below a certain level which will make the farmers loose revenue, to stabilize the prices. That function is very social and government has to take full responsibility for it,� the Minister stated strongly. He further noted that the aspect government is seeking a legal backing to do is to allow for private partnership for the mode of marketing and distribution of any excess farm produce. �When stocks are held beyond buffer stock levels, it has to be distributed to end users like the feed mills, agro processing companies and even for exporters if possible. This facet is commercial in nature and because it requires enough money to do so, I said we were looking for private sector participation and unfortunately the reporter misquoted it as privatization. The two are different� he emphasized. He said the partnerships being requested was not only in monetary terms but also for private sector players who could build more warehouses and provide trucks to cart farm produce from the hinterlands to the company for purchase and storage. He assured for instance that anyone who had articulated trucks could be allowed under a Public Private Partnership arrangement to enter into a memorandum of understanding with NAFCO for the purchase of produce it carts on the company�s behalf. Mr. Humado further refuted claims suggesting that �the 15 million Ghana cedis seed capital for the project announced during the inauguration is yet to be fully redeemed by government.� The Minister said since its inauguration in 2010, government had capitalized the company with 15million cedis� but admitted that the amount has not been adequate to support operations of the company. Mr. Humado said his outfit was constrained in seeking any financial support from government considering the government�s current unhealthy financial position. He however assured that his ministry was still thinking outside the box to package itself to attract funds from both internal sources and donor agencies to keep NAFCO running.