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CARE-Ghana, Cargill support women rice farmers with modern equipment

CARE-Ghana, Cargill support women rice farmers with modern equipment
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By Nicholas Osei-Wusu

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has established that empowering women in the agricultural production value chain is not just a moral imperative, but also a smart economic strategy.

According to the Ministry, evidence in Ghana shows that when women have access to productive resources and marketing, household incomes increase, children are better fed, and communities are lifted out of poverty.

The Ashanti Regional Director of Agriculture, Godfrey Appiah Acheampong, made this observation at Kufuor Camp in the Atwima Mponua District of Ashanti during the handing over of some machines to support smallholder women rice farmers to increase their production capacities.

“Evidence shows that when women have access to productive resources and markets, household incomes rise, children are better fed, and communities are lifted out of poverty. Let’s also acknowledge the broader impact of PROSPER III. Beyond the equipment, this project has invested in capacity building, enterprise development, and community-led approaches,” he noted.

Mr. Acheampong commended CARE-Ghana and Cargill for their years of commitment to women and girls’ empowerment.

A total of 6,760 smallholder rice farmers in five rural communities in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region are to benefit from rice processing and other equipment, free of charge.

The beneficiaries, through their community-based women farmer groups, received five motorized tricycles, commonly known as Aboboyaa, three rice threshers, ten tarpaulins, and five weighing scales.

The women came from Kufuor Camp, KD Sreso, Pasoro, Ayigbo, and Tonkoase.

The support, which is part of an intervention by CARE-Ghana in partnership with Cargill, follows a market assessment conducted under Phase Three of the ‘Promoting a Sustainable and Food Secured World–PROSPER’ project. The assessment identified the lack of modern equipment as a major barrier to growth in local value chains.

The intervention therefore aims to improve productivity and income for women in agriculture, particularly in rice production and cocoa farming.

The Head of Programmes and Humanitarian Work at CARE-Ghana, Mr. Zakaria Yakubu, explained that the support is also part of the organization’s efforts to empower women through better economic and livelihood opportunities for improved household income and nutrition.

“When you work and support women, you’re supporting an entire household and community. This is why at CARE-Ghana, we focus more on women and children as the entry point to support the entire household and community. So wherever we go, we prioritize supporting women,” Mr. Zakaria explained.

The Country Operations and Sustainability Manager of Cargill Ghana, Samuel Apena, said that in the past nine years, Cargill, in partnership with CARE-Ghana through the Prosperous Communities Project, has supported cocoa farmers and their communities in the Western North, Central, and Ashanti Regions.

He said the project “aims to improve livelihoods, nutrition, and financial literacy among cocoa farmers—particularly women—and to strengthen community governance.”

The Atwima Mponua intervention brings the number of women and girls supported by CARE-Ghana over the years to about 500,000 across 265 cocoa-growing communities.

Some of the beneficiary women rice farmers told GBC that the intervention has removed a major barrier to their production, encouraging them to continue farming and improve their capacity.

“It’s always been difficult to cart our produce from the farms, which are mostly in wetlands. The problem worsens during the rainy season when we struggle to evacuate our harvested rice. This often discouraged us from continuing with rice production. But now, with this equipment support from CARE-Ghana and Cargill, we can only be happy,” said Nana Yaa Kua, one of the rice farmers.

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