OLAM Ghana, a non-governmental organization (NGO), has donated about 2000 cashew seedlings to a raw cashew procurement firm in the West Gonja Municipality of Savannah region.
The donation which was received by FortuneAid (FAL) on behalf of some 50 cashew farmers at a short ceremony held at Damongo is to help them boost cashew production.
The CEO of FortuneAid who doubles as the President of the Cashew Farmers Association of Damongo, Mr. Sumani Iddrisu expressed gratitude to OLAM Ghana on behalf of the farmers, for supporting them with the seedlings.
Mr. Sumani Iddrisu who is popularly known as Don Diego De Azambuja disclosed that his outfit aside collaborating with OLAM Ghana, is partnering with Tree Aid, Arocha Ghana, and MOFA to improve the livelihood of Cashew farmers in West Gonja Municipality and beyond.
According to him, the livelihood intervention by OLAM Ghana is to support farmers with high yielding cashew seedlings to increase production and in turn provide a ready market to the cashew farmers through FortuneAid.
“FortuneAid is in collaboration with OLAM Ghana Limited to procure raw cashew nuts from farmers. As a result, the collaboration has led to the purchasing of cashew in the Municipality. and after purchasing the cashew, OLAM Ghana has a livelihood intervention to supply farmers with high yielding cashew seedlings for expansion of their farms and we basically intervene with the Agronomical practices-distribution of the seedlings, transplanting and proper management of the farms.”
As someone who has been in this sector for over ten years, Mr. Iddrisu highlighted the marketing aspect, low production, and fluctuating prices as the main challenges in the value chain.
He further noted that the coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on the marketing aspect of cashew. He stated that since buyers from India among others who offer better prices are scared away, farmers are compelled to abandon their cashew nuts in the farms.
Mr.Ambrose Haruna, the Damongo Branch Vision Fund Manager and a Board Member of FortuneAid Limited disclosed that each farmer is entitled to 40 seedlings which is sufficient to cover an acre of land.
He said the intervention by OLAM Ghana will contribute to poverty eradication by boosting the capacity of farmers to go into commercial production of cashew.
Mr. Iddrisu while commending OLAM Ghana for the intervention, he assured the NGO of fruitful returns, adding that, it was their hope to expand such interventions to cover cashew farmers in the entire Savannah Region.
The Management Information Systems(MIS) officer for the Department of Agriculture, Mr. Ezekiel Gariba Kwesi, lauded the intervention by FortuneAid together with its partners.
He revealed that it is a way of complementing government effort in the area of Planting for Export and Rural Development.
According to him, the lack of database to give a vivid picture of the total number of cashew farmers in the Municipality remains a challenge his office is trying to address.
He noted that most of the farmers aside lack basic management skills to properly keep their farms, also concentrate so much on the annual crops than cash crops because the tree crops do not bring immediate benefit.
Mr Ezekiel however said there is hope in sight with such interventions from OLAM Ghana and encouraged farmers to see cashew production as a long term income source so that when the annual crops fail, they can rely on the cash crops.
