By Philip Tengzu
Wa, (UW/R), May 4, GNA – Some women in the Upper West Region have recounted the impact of ActionAid Ghana (AAG) interventions on their livelihoods and economic empowerment, enabling them to support in catering meaningfully for their families.
Some of these interventions included timely access to tractor services, climate-resilient sustainable agricultural practices, economic empowerment through Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), and knowledge acquisition on farm records keeping, among others.
This was contained in the 2022 annual report of AAG’s Upper West Regional Programme made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa.
According to the report, the AAG had been working with smallholder farmers and women groups in the Wa East, Sissala West, and Lambussie Districts, Sissala East, Nandom, Jirapa, and Lawra Municipalities over the years as part of efforts to contribute to transforming the livelihoods of rural women.
It indicated that through its community-led demonstration farms on climate-resilient sustainable agriculture practices, community social protection initiative for rural women through VSLAs, and other stakeholder engagement activities, the beneficiaries had made informed decisions on appropriate farming techniques and business approaches.
Madam Patience Bogkur, a 35-year-old mother of three children at Nanyaare in the Lawra Municipality who had benefited from the AAG’s interventions, said they had been introduced to high-yielding, drought-resistant, and short-maturing improved crop varieties, which had helped improve their farming outcomes.
Madam Bogkur, the leader of a Small Holder Women Farmers group in the community, said through the knowledge gained from the demonstration farms, she had good yield in 2022 saying, “This is the first time my family can boast of not relying on the market to feed.”
Madam Habibata Ampuo, a mother of two in Funsi in the Wa East District, also indicated that through the AAG-facilitated VSLA group, she had been able to secure start-up capital to buy small ruminates to rear as well as to start her tom brown selling business.
“My livelihood and other women have improved through the VSLA. I am now able to support my husband to pay our children’s school fees …,” Madam Ampuo, the Secretary to the AWAA Smallholder Women Farmer Group in Funsi said.
The intervention of AAG also influenced women’s timely access to tractor services at reduced cost and other agricultural production resources such as fertile lands to farm.
The report indicated that during the 2021/2022 cropping season, the Sissala East Municipal Assembly released two tractors for women smallholder farmers following AAG’s facilitated engagement with the authorities and women smallholder farmers in the municipality.
“As a result of these, 56 smallholder women farms from 14 communities benefited from the initiative with over 211 acres of women’s farmlands cultivated”, the report said.
Madam Adisatu Kasim, a 52-year-old smallholder woman farmer with the Sifiasi group at Kong in the Sissala East Municipality, said women farmers in her community, hitherto, could only get access to tractor services after those tractors had finished working on their husbands’ farms and that accessing fertile lands was also a big challenge to them.
“Thanks to ActionAid’s work around women’s access to fertile lands, female extension volunteers support and engagements with the assembly on women’s access to early tractor services, women of Kong community now have access to early tractor services at reduced prices which has helped to improve our yields,” Madam Kasim explained.
GNA