ActionAid to support 3000 women smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana
ActionAid Ghana with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is implementing a project dubbed ‘Women Rights to Sustainable Livelihoods’ aimed at supporting 3,000 women smallholder farmers in four districts to increase food production and crop yields.
The three-and-a-half-year project is being implemented in the Nanumba North and Nanumba South Districts in the Northern Region and in the Tallensi and Nabdam Districts of the Upper East Region to boost the women’s capacities and sensitize them on the need to demand from stakeholders the attention that would enhance women’s participation in agriculture.
As part of the project interventions, the beneficiaries would be given goats for livestock rearing, food processing, and providing seeds to some women for crop cultivation.
Madam Azumi Mesuna, Project Manager of Women’s Rights and Sustainable Livelihoods of ActionAid-Ghana disclosed this on Thursday in Bimbilla in the Nanumba North District at the opening ceremony of a ten-day training of trainee’s workshop.
The workshop brought together 58 participants from 58 communities in the Nanuba North and South to be trained on the concept of the project and after their training, they would return to their communities and form groups of 30 women in their communities for training to achieve the objectives of the project.
Madam Mesuna said the project would not only improve food production but reduce food insecurity through the adoption of REFLECT circles to enhance the capacities of women to meet regularly with local and national policy makers to engage them for more support.
She said women would be trained to adapt to sustainable agricultural practices such as using multi-cropping and using childcare centers, community woodlots, water harvesting systems to reduce the amount of time women spent on household chores.
Mr. Seidu Aziz Mohammed, the Nanumba North District Deputy Coordinating Director underscored the tremendous role played by ActionAid in the development of the District, adding that a lot of initiatives and projects would not have been in existence without the NGO.
He urged the participants to take the training seriously since it was going to have a positive impact on the lives of many people in the area.
Mr. Azuma Khama, a disabled participant and a Member of Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) said the training and the entire project would enhance the living standards of PWDs, stressing that many of their members were into livestock rearing.
He said the knowledge gained at the workshop would be shared among its members.
Source: GNA