Megan Putnam

Country: Ghana
Partner: Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA)
Placement: Promoting farming as a business

“I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to live the life they want,” says Megan Putnam.

Through her work with EWB’s Farming as a Business team in Ghana, Megan is motivated by the chance to make this idea a reality. In the Upper East Region of Ghana, thousands of rural families are caught in a cycle of persistent poverty where they only have the opportunity to farm for daily survival, and not as a lasting source of income.

Approaching farming as a business is an important way to mitigate this challenge. Semi-commercial farming allows farmers to cultivate higher yield production, sell the surplus crops, and earn sufficient income to lead prosperous lives.

Recognizing this, EWB created the innovative Agriculture as a Business curriculum along with the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). MoFA is a particularly important partner for EWB as they have an expansive network of field staff, called Agriculture Extension Agents, who work directly with thousands of rural farmers.

Through eight tailored workshops, the program has Agricultural Extension Agents work with farmer groups to build the skills necessary to operate their farms as businesses. Importantly, workshop topics include long-term business planning, monitoring, and evaluation to help farmers shift their approach.

Megan is working in to improve the ability of MoFA’s extension staff to implement the Agriculture as a Business program. Megan’s one-on-one work with MoFA staff ensures that they have the management, coaching and facilitation skills to identify and address the challenges that farmer groups face and to use the concepts of Agriculture as a Business to help create solutions.

In doing so, Megan has had the chance to meet with some of Ghana’s most exciting and innovative agricultural leaders.

“Sofo is one of the extension agents who has been working with the Agriculture as a Business program for a while,” she says. “He is using the program to help farmers diversify their crops and earn an income, while also going above and beyond to recognize and address their other needs such as literacy training.”

With the achievements of the Agriculture as a Business program to date, Megan is now hoping to extend the curriculum to new districts in the Upper East region of Ghana. She will continue to be an important part of this initiative as she works alongside MoFA staff to ensure the program’s long-term effectiveness and to help them think innovatively about solutions to ongoing challenges, such as access to market information.

Megan concludes, “I get to interact with really inspiring people who are determined to make agriculture a profitable activity. It’s exciting because farmers are incredibly capable and hard working individuals, who, when they have the tools and support, can stimulate change and growth that contributes to improving their lives as they move out of poverty.”