By: Nana Achiaa Aboagye
The United States Agency for International Development – USAID – and the World Food Programme (WFP) are embarking on a one-year project to support farmers in Ghana during the lean session.
The project, to be undertaken in partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture, is valued at seven million dollars.
The project beneficiaries are in selected districts across Upper East, Upper West, Northeast and Northern regions and adjoining areas.
Agriculture sector players in Ghana are building synergies to address the growing vulnerability of smallholder farmers adversely affected by the Russia-Ukraine war and the economic downturn resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic. Fertilizer prices have increased significantly making it challenging for smallholders to access.
While inputs are available to some degree on the market, Fertilizer critical for the Guinea Savanna and Sudan Savanna soil types in northern Ghana including urea and NPK remain expensive.
High input and production costs are leading to low competitiveness and low income for agriculture dependent households discouraging especially the youth from pursuing agriculture as a livelihood. The cost of inaction during the productive season is high.
During the three-month lean season – from June to August 2023, the farmer-support programme will be implemented through a well-designed cash transfer system, to be disbursed in two tranches, to about 17,000 targeted productive smallholder farmers in 163 communities and 17 districts.
Through a multi-sectoral initiative, which includes the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the National Identification Authority and MTN, the World Food Programme – WFP – has identified and registered the vulnerable smallholder farmers who will benefit from the project.
The selected farmers will receive the cedi equivalent of 315 dollars via mobile money over the three-month period.
The WFP’s Deputy Country Director and Head of Programme, Ms. Anna Mukiibi-Bunnya said all the beneficiaries are in USAID’s zone of influence.
She said out of the 17,000 targeted productive smallholder farmers, they are able to register 16,373 farmers representing 96 percent of the expected target of which 59 percent are females, 46 percent are males and 5 percent are persons with disabilities.
She mentioned that the selected farmers have landholdings between one to ten acres adding that the threshold for women, youth and the marginalized groups such as persons living with disabilities were lowered from one to 0.5 acres to ensure their inclusion.
She explained that WFP is exploring opportunities to leverage GIS technology such as satellite imagery and remote sensing to monitor crop types, trends and patterns of productivity of the targeted farmers to inform impact.
She intimated that with coordination, collaboration and synergizing they can occupy a transformative space to achieve zero hunger by 2030.
The Deputy Director of Economic Growth, USAID Ghana, Madam Lily Amber Kenny said the project would improve agricultural productivity as it would increase the knowledge of the farmers on good agricultural practices.
She said with close partnership with the government, USAID and WFP are committed to work in hand to implement this transformative project adding that recognizing the importance of the collaboration and coordination, the joint effort will ensure the effective delivery of support of the farmers in Ghana.
The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, Mr. Yaw Frimpong Addo advised the farmers to use the money for the intended purpose.
He said the money given to them is not for their pocket or purse but for productivity.
The project is essential to enhance food security, improve livelihood and to sustain Ghana’s agricultural sector.
