Oct 5 2010 @ 16:29

"I'd like to open a savings account, please."

Erin Antcliffe has been working with EWB, in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana since March 2010. She wrote this story in April 2010.

My fingers are tingling and my thumbs are covered in small punctures. I pick up another groundnut from my lap, crack open the shell and drop the nuts into a bucket beside me.

Around me, under the shade of a mango tree, men and women talk and laugh while they do this work. They have been at this all day, shelling bowl after bowl of groundnuts. In fact, they have been at it all week, processing the groundnuts and selling them at the market.

But why do this work now? These groundnuts were harvested last October and stored in big sacks for the last 6 months. Why weren’t they cracked and sold immediately after harvest?

I posed this question to Salifo, my host in the village of Zuo. He responded that he needed the money from the groundnuts to buy inputs for his farm this year, like seeds, fertilizer and rent for a tractor to plough the land.

He knew if he sold the groundnuts last year, he would have spent the money by this time and would not be able to buy those inputs. So instead, he saved the groundnuts.

This is an important form of savings for Ghanaian farmers. Salifo, like most Ghanaian farmers, doesn’t have his own savings account at a bank. He has no way to protect his money when he earns some. And in Ghana, when you have any amount of cash, friends and relatives start dropping by to borrow it until, little by little, it’s all gone. Storing crops, or other assets, is a better way to save money until you want to spend it.

The other bonus to selling groundnuts now is the increase in price. After harvest, when the market is flooded with fresh goods, the price is at its lowest. At that time, a bowl of groundnuts will earn you about $1.20 CAD.

But now at the beginning of the farming season, the market has cooled down and the price has risen to $2.00 CAD, yielding more profit for the same crop.

Of course, not everyone has the option of saving. Often families reach the end of the farming season with nothing left in their stores to eat. They are forced to sell their goods at the lowest price, just after harvest, because they need to keep food on the table. They would rather sell their goods when the price rises, 6 months later, but they don’t have a choice.

This is what it is like to live hand-to-mouth in a country like Ghana. Only those who start with something – a good business plan, farming inputs, or a bit of luck – can afford the luxury of waiting to sell their goods after harvest.

My work here in Ghana is about increasing the number of people who wait to sell their groundnuts. It’s about changing the decision from one of necessity to one of strategic business planning. Overall, it’s about increasing the number of people who have a choice.

To learn more about EWB's work with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana, watch the video here.

To read more of Erin's stories from her work in Ghana, click here.

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