NGO builds capacity of smallholder women farmers on access to marketing opportunities.

The Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM), a gender focused organisation in collaboration with ActionAid Ghana, has trained leaders of smallholder women farmers’ groups in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region on access to marketing opportunities for their farm produce.

The leaders, drawn from 10 communities of the district, were equipped with ways they could create market for their farm produce, take advantage of technology to market their produce, and adopt best agricultural practices to maintain soil fertility for high yields.

They were also taken through variety of seeds available and adaptable to their soil, as well as other agriculture projects at their disposal that they could benefit from, including access to farm input.
The training formed part of the Green Economy project aimed at promoting food security and climate change resilience.

Ms Nancy Awinbisa Amiziah, the Project Officer, WOM, said the sensitisation became necessary following concerns by the smallholder farmers over their lack of information about high yielding crops and market opportunities for their products.

“We work with these women groups, and during one of our meetings with them last year, it came out that most of them do not have information on which crops were of high demand and readily available for market, and so they end up producing crops that they find it difficult to sell,” she stated. 

This, she said, coupled with the fact that the women had limited access to land and considering how they could maximise those lands to get higher yields to support their families and earn income for themselves, occasioned the collaborations of the two organisations to help them make informed decisions.

“The main aim is to inform them about cropping, and that is why we have organised this training in this period of the season so that the women would know whatever crops that they should go for to enable them make profit out of their produce to support their families,” she added. 

Mr Matthew Sulemana, the Talensi District Director of the Department of Agriculture, reiterated that his outfit was open to assisting the farmers reach a larger market and urged them to reach out for assistance. 

He also emphasised that agriculture projects, including the government’s planting for Food and Jobs, the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small Scale Mining project, and the Food System Resilience project, were there to benefit smallholder farmers and encouraged them to take advantage.

Madam Beatrice Saa, the President of the Upper East Regional Widows Network and Leader of the Wakii Women Group, said the training had exposed her to a lot of things she was unaware of and would be beneficial to her and the members of her group.

She, however, bemoaned that access to land and tractor services were major problems affecting their farming activities.

“As women, we don’t have access to good land. Last year, for instance, I wanted to farm, and they gave me an outer place where monkeys are, so the monkeys, together with cattle destroyed my crops,” she said.