Smallholder farmers in selected communities in northern Ghana are set to benefit from a project that seeks to improve their production and increase their economic opportunities for improved livelihoods.
The project, “Creating Lands of Opportunity: Transforming Livelihoods through Landscape Restoration in the Sahel,” is a three-year project ending in 2023- and its being implemented by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SARI), A Rocha Ghana, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The five million Euro project has funding support from the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition through the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification-Global Mechanism. Dr. Iddrisu Yahaya, the Lead Researcher on the project at the CSIR-SARI based in Wa, revealed this in an interview.
He noted the CSIR-SARI would focus on building the capacity of the farmers on improved farming practices. At the same time, A Rocha Ghana would support the farmers to develop renewable energy such as solar, with the Environmental Protection Agency, training the farmers on environmentally friendly farming practices.
Project to improve good agronomic practices
Dr. Yahaya said a baseline survey conducted before the start of the project on food crops and livestock value chains, including maize, soya beans, cowpea goats, and sheep, identified some challenges, including a knowledge gap in agronomic practices and marketing techniques among the farmers, which needed to be addressed.
“The project has designed a sustainable value chain development plan to improve the farmers’ productivity, including building their capacities in Good Agronomic Practices (GAP), effective marketing techniques, and linking the farmers to ready markets through trade fairs.”
Dr. Yahaya
Dr. Julius Yirzagla, a researcher with the CSIR-SARI based in Bawku, who also spoke on the sidelines in an interview, indicated that the fair trade component of the project would also expose farmers agri-inputs such as tractors and improved seeds.
“Producers knowing they have a readily available market, will be committed to their productions and will add value to improve the quality of their production to achieve their production targets and improve their livelihoods. The trade fair will establish linkages between farmers and buyers and bring about sustainability in crop production and productivity.”
Dr. Julius Yirzagla
He added that as part of the project implementation, they would also procure equipment such as threshers and weighing scales for the farmers in the beneficiary communities to improve their production and ensure standardization in selling their produce.
“We have seen that a lot of foreign companies come in to buy such crops as soya beans, and when they come, the middlemen go to the villages and buy the produce from farmers in sacks then come and weigh for the companies, and farmers don’t get the actual value of their produce.”
Dr. Julius Yirzagla
Project replicated in neighboring countries to promote landscape restoration
The project targets about 100,000 value chain actors in the Upper East and Upper West Regions with specific emphasis on the Nachala and Saakulu in the Sissala East Municipality, Upper West Region; Dalaasa and Naadema communities in the Builsa South District; Yameriga and Awaradone in the Talensi District and Tarikom and Gbango communities in the Bawku West District in the Upper East Region.
The project is also being implemented in Burkina Faso and Niger to promote landscape restoration and improve the livelihoods of rural communities by ensuring sustainable production of high-value dryland products, among others.
