Rural Agriculture in Ghana
Planning for the future in Ghana’s rural communities
Engineers Without Borders works in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana. Here, we are building the business capabilities of rural farmers to increase innovation, production, and profits in the long-term.
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
The rural reality in Ghana
In 2004, the Awuladese farmer group in the Northern Region of Ghana accessed a small loan to establish a 5-acre cashew plot. Without the necessary business training and experience to manage their farms, they soon defaulted on their loan.
The experience of the Awuladese group is not uncommon across Ghana. Without a business approach to agriculture, most farmers are not able to anticipate, monitor and evaluate their harvests against the inevitable challenges that arise – such as the limited availability of markets or irregular rains. Here, farmers often only have the skills and opportunity to farm for day-to-day survival, and not to support their families over the long-term.
Learn about our volunteers in Ghana
Our approach
EWB is working in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in Northern Ghana to shift rural farmers from farming for survival, to farming as a business.
Building the skills to run farms as businesses
Farmers across Ghana are often only equipped with the skills to farm for day-to-day survival, and not to generate profit. In response to this, EWB volunteers developed the Agriculture as a Business program in 2008, which is focused on providing business training for farmer groups to improve their harvests.
The program covers eight topics with farmer groups, providing training on topics such as planting, risk and profit analysis. The Agriculture as a Business program helps farmers make strategic decisions that will ensure they are able to earn an income from their farms, and provide a stable future for their families.
And the Awuladese group is no exception. Because the Agriculture as a Business program has equipped them with the necessary skills to manage their farms, they are now confident that each member of the group will earn extra income.
Leading innovative market-level changes
In Ghana’s most remote communities, markets are often unavailable for farmers to sell their harvests and earn an income. As a result, EWB is working with MoFA to implement innovative solutions to market challenges. We developed and piloted one such response, the Eat Ghana Rice marketing campaign, to promote the importance of providing a market for local farmers to sell their harvest.
The campaign achieved impressive results: one half of the target market heard the jingle or saw a billboard, and one quarter of consumers switched to locally-produced rice. Although seemingly simple, the Eat Ghana Rice campaign has positively impacted the lives of hundreds of rice farmers and processors in Northern Ghana.
The Way Forward
Our ambitions are high in the agriculture sector of Ghana. This year, we are aiming to scale up the Agriculture as a Business program to reach a greater number of rural communities and farmers across Ghana. Additionally, a large sector donor earmarked $ 35,000 to test the Eat Ghana Rice campaign at a national level over the next three years – we are also working to pilot and implement further innovative responses to market-level challenges.
For the members of the Awuladese farmer group – like so many others – EWB’s work in the coming year means a new chance to realize a more prosperous future through farming.
