More female farmers now into male-dominated crop cultivation
Many female farmers have ventured into the production of crops often seen as ‘men crops’, following an aggressive capacity building efforts undertaken by African Lead, to improve leadership skills of women into agribusiness across the country.
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Maize, yams, cassava, sorghum, millet, cocoa, beans, palm oil, pineapples, cotton, tomatoes and plantain production are considered in several Ghanaian communities as ‘men crops’ due to the tedious nature of their cultivation or physical energy exerted in tilling land.
More than 200 women involved in Ghana’s agriculture transformation process aiming to combat hunger and improve food security have benefited directly from the Africa Lead champions for change leadership short courses since 2010.
“I have gone through a lot of training, especially change for champions where a lot of different models have been introduced,” the Executive Director of Savannah Integrated Rural Development, Hajia Alima Sagito Saed, said.
Strategy
“One of the key successes stories that we have learned or been able to impart to our women is to get their confidence to build and venture into otherwise men crops,” she told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at a Super Champions for Change Women’s Conference in Accra.
Over 100 women across the country took part in the two-day confab where members of the Women in Agribusiness Network of Ghana (WIANG) engaged in networking, learning and information sharing sessions on opportunities and new technologies in agribusiness.
“When soya beans came the men were more into it than women, the idea is that it is tedious to do soya beans but with the capacity and leadership training, women now understand you can do farming without using only your physical energy and still get the results, Hajia Saed said.
She described leadership as “leading strategically” which is crucial in everything women involved in agricultural transformation agenda, and expressed the belief that scaling up capacity training efforts in rural farming communities would boost food production significantly.
Teams
There are about 120 women groups made up of 30 members scattered in the Northern Region. “What we are doing is to target the leadership of these groups, build their confidence in such a way that they can be empowered to produce along the agriculture value chain – so they will not see themselves working in isolation.”
Yam too is the crop that men are leading in the production but gradually the project has encouraged women to raise yams and own yam farms.
The women in the Northern Region have also established and operate their own ‘village savings and loans’ facility and community social fund where they draw money to pay their children school fees and learning materials as well as access healthcare services.
“Every time there is this challenge of lack of credit for farming, lack of credit for farming, we have seen this as a challenge for long, but it is not going, it means that we just have to find a way of going around it.”
“So what we have done strategically is to form village savings and loans facility, the process is for the women to internally generate their own money and invest in their own capacity to transform their businesses.”
Agric policies
The Super Champion Women, though lauded the capacity building efforts, they called for introduction of robust agricultural policies that would favour females into agribusinesses.
The enabling farming environment – where inimical traditional and cultural practices inhibiting farming are removed, women can access better credit facilities, secure lands and receive consistent training in farm modernisation –would enable them to inject dynamism in Ghana’s agriculture to boost production and ensure food security.
“What women farmers need urgently is for food and agriculture ministry to come out with inclusive agricultural policies and programmes that will favour our women to showcase their new learning skills and technologies,” Mrs Helena Azu-Adjei, WIANG Coordinator, said.
“I have had so many training programmes organised by Africa Lead, through them, we have been able to seek for funds to celebrate women annually [successful women achievers].”
During such events, she policy makers were invited to talk on favourable agriculture policies to favour women after which farm inputs like cutlasses, wheelbarrows, hoes and wellington boots distributed to the women, but added “the talk is not enough what we need is policy and action plan.”.
