Ghana
Developing Sustainable Livelihoods in Northern Ghana
What’s the issue?
In comparison to the rest of the country, the northern and upper east regions of Ghana are unique in several respects, not least their environmental hostility, historical deprivation and social marginalisation. Rain is limited and unreliable. Although there has been steady progress in poverty reduction in Ghana, the north of the country performs significantly worse on human de
velopment indicators than other areas: adult literacy is lower, fewer children attend school, average incomes are lower and malnutrition among under-fives is higher.
The people of northern Ghana are some of the poorest in the country. They are predominantly subsistence farmers and, due to the above reasons, have little to sell. As a means to improve yields, farmers – both men and women – use chemical fertilisers that are easily available in local markets. However many of these fertilisers contain banned and illegal substances and are harmful to people’s health and the environment. Knowledge and understanding of organic farming methods and natural resource management are very limited and many farmers lack the training and support needed for rearing livestock.
What is African Initiatives doing?
Our partner, the Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC), has been wo
rking in the area for several years to address these issues and improve food security for farming communities. African Initiatives is now supporting this three-year project in neighbouring communities in northern Ghana, in order to continue this life-changing work.
With African Initiatives' support, CSRC will work across 18 communities in order to carry out the following:
- Sustainable Agriculture Promotion - providing training onsustainable agricultural techniques such as natural resource management; conducting refresher training of women farmers onorganic techniques of vegetable farming; purchase and distribute farming tools to eight new communities; continuing to run two farmer field school sessions in two districts; and training farmers on post-harvest management.
- Promotion of Organic Farming - sensitising three new communities on the negativeimpacts of chemical pesticide misuse.; conducting research into organic farming and on agrochemical; supporting and supervising work for the organic demonstration farm in three new communities; promoting and facilitating activities to educate farmers about organic farming practices; arranging radio programmes to educate the public on the importance of organic farming; organising exchange/learning visits between farmers’ groups and beneficiaries in seven communities; and supporting farmer advocacy activities on issues such as the misuse of agrochemicals/fair market trading.
- Livestock Interventions - providing training in livestock and poultry housing, feeding and medication in three new communities; supporting women’s groups in three new communities to purchase parent livestock for breeding; training women in three communities on livestock feeding; setting up and monitoring community veterinary practices’ medicine packages across all three districts; monitoring the activities of the veterinary officers in eight communities; and introducing and supporting the production of guinea fowl in five communities (ten farm families).
- Mobilisation and Group Development Techniques in three new communities - coordinating the formation of farming groups, and developing leadership, record-keeping training and planning within farming groups.
- Agro-Processing and Marketing Support - researching and disseminating market trading information to nine communities; liaising with rural and commercial banks to help strengthen farmers’ groups in nine communities; training farming groups in four new communities on banking, savings and credit management; and monitoring the activities of four new groups that receive loans from banks.