IFAD projects in Ghana: Improving livelihoods

Women fixing the squeezer to drain water

from the grated cassava at the Milenovisi Gari Processing factory

by Philomena  Dovi Kuzoe

Eastern Region, Ghana- A team from the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD in Rome was in Ghana for a four day working visit to attend the Country Programme Evaluation round table and the start-up workshop for the new Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes.  The team, together with the CPM and Officials from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture made a field visit to IFAD’s project sites in the Eastern region of Ghana This is to enable them have first-hand information on projects.. In all, the team visited four project sites. First, the team met with the Fanteakwa District Chief Executive, the Coordinating Director of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and other project staff and clients. They discussed the implementation and activities of the Rural Enterprises Project as well as the district assembly’s effort to maintain and sustain the project.  The District Offices operate the Business Advisory Centers initiated by the Rural Enterprises Project and these centers have become a model for national MSE policy in the country.

From Fanteakwa, the team moved to a local soap-making factory at Otuater.   A small group made up of only 17 women and one man, the group has become the leading soap supplier in the district and beyond. At the factory the women were seen busily cutting, branding and packaging their soap.   The Rural Enterprise Project, REP spotted this group during an exhibition and trade fair.  According to the group, being in touch with REP has transformed their operations; they now make good sales, have created market linkages and also learnt new technologies and skills.  They also support their husbands and are able to send their children to school. The District Chief Executive Officer promised the women a car to enable  them transport their products to the market especially on market-days when the soap is in high demand.

The IOE team and officials of the South Akim Rural Bank

The team moved from this point to Nankese, a cocoa farming community where the 2009 best rural bank, the South Akyim Rural Bank is headquartered. The bank was ranked the 20th on the Ghana Club 100 list in 2010.  It enrolled as a participating Financial Institution of REP II in 2006 to deliver financial services to target micro and small enterprises in the district. According to the officials of the bank the establishment of the Business Advisory Centers, (BAC) has been very beneficial and the bank has collaborated effectively with the center to support project clients to establish their businesses. However it was noted that despite the bank’s large clientele, only three people applied for a matching grant which is provided by REP.  Rural banks in the country lend to the rural clients but usually not for agricultural activities and 73 per cent of staff of these banks perceived agricultural lending to be riskier than other lending types.   But at the South Akyim Rural Bank, 70 per cent of its clients are agro-processors making it agriculture-friendly.


The last point of call was the Milenovisi gari processing factory at Korkormu. The facility at the centre has been upgraded to a Good Practices Center. The group is also a good example of the value chain concept with 106 actors including farmers, traders, transporters and fabricators. We couldn’t have concluded the trip without visiting a gari processing factory.

Gari is one form of processed cassava and is eaten all over the country making it a marketable commodity. It is vital to reducing post-harvest food losses and increases food availability in Ghana. Gari, if stored properly can last for a year without going bad. Through REP//RTIMP the gari processing center has recorded tremendous success.

It was an exciting field trip seeing how much small scale business are improving the lives of the rural poor and contributing to the development of the country through project implementation. As we journeyed back to Accra, I was wondering whether these laudable projects could be sustained and maintained in view of the weak marketing opportunities.

Africa's small farmers - a change of thinking

by Mohamed Beavogui

As an African but also a development practitioner, I've seen a lot of good ideas and best intentions left broken and long forgotten in farmers' fields.

In so many cases, the reason is simple. One idea, one piece of technology on its own seldom addresses the multiplicity of problems facing the average smallholder farmer struggling to make a living on a small patch of land in a remote corner of his or her country. Yet too often, that's exactly what people look for - an easy fix or a single solution.

In my experience, both in the field and now as the Director of the Western and Central Africa Division at IFAD, what makes a real difference is something more fundamental - it's how we look at Africa's smallholder farmers.

Do we see them as victims - poverty stricken women and men trapped in cycles of subsistence farming - or as potential entrepreneurs struggling to run small businesses in places were basic tools such as finance, technology, training and access to markets are unavailable? It's my belief that we need a paradigm shift in the way we think - one that takes us away from old ideas of African agriculture which rely on basic farming practices and on government and donor handouts and, instead, focuses on creating a vibrant rural economy built on establishing the right business environment for small farmers.

A woman I know in Ghana is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Her name is Faustina Sayki. She runs a successful cassava processing centre in a small rural town. She employs 34 women and produces about 30 tonnes of cassava flour, known as gari, a week. Her customers are in the US, UK, Nigeria and Mali. She also extracts starch from cassava and sells it to local textile and pharmaceutical factories. Many describe her as a national success story.

So how did a poor cassava farmer in a remote community build a successful cassava-processing factory? A business environment was created that gave her a chance, that's how.

Through the IFAD-supported Roots and Tubers Project Improvement and Marketing Programme she received support she needed to respond directly to market opportunities. For example, she received training that helped her strengthen her entrepreneurial skills and business savvy; and she had access to expert research and adapted technologies that helped her improve her factory's efficiency and produce a higher quality and quantity of gari.

With a sound business plan and a savings history, she was able to access private equity from a rural bank. Together, these things enabled Faustina to enter the market with a well-priced, reliable, high-quality product that is now in demand. Her story suggests what's possible once we put away old notions and start looking at small farming in Africa as a business opportunity.

Originally posted on World Challenge blog

#sfrome: Local solutions for global problems: Food security through traditional crops-a participatory approach (147)

by T.J James
Share Fair is an innovative and interesting platform for learning, sharing, networking and collaboration. I am confident that thought provoking intellectual and stimulating atmosphere helped in cross fertilization of ideas, concepts and thoughts. I have been working in the field of indigenous knowledge and farmers innovation for the past several years. Presently I am coordinating a project implemented by a NGO Peermade Development Society based in Kerala ,India supported by ITPGRFA on food security ,climate change and agro biodiversity. In the share fair I am sharing a case study on reviving a locally adapted farmer developed cassava variety through women self help groups. The case study highlights the importance of local crops in mitigating climate change and climate change and participation of target groups.

The local variety of cassava ( known as Ambakkadan variety) was spotted by a farmer Ambakkadan Thommi way back in 1964. This variety was quite popular during 1970s and 80s. Due to influx of hybrid and short-duration varieties, Ambakkadan variety had vanished from the field, and presently its cultivation is confined to a few individual isolated farmers in Kerala . But with increased prize for food crops recently and also due to non adaptability of hybrid crops , farmers remembered ambakkadan variety. The project team identified the isolated farmers who cultivating this variety and introduced the cultivation in two remote villages of Idukki district ,Kerala - ‘Karunapuram’ and ‘Cumbummettu’ - through 60 women belonging to three self help groups. . They got bumper production and the market demand is also very high for this variety, and for one kilo of cassava, they are getting Rs. 12 to Rs. 15. Besides these advantages, this contributes to food security at house-hold level. The success stories are slowly spreading in the village and demand for the setts is coming from farmers of every quarter now. At present, more than hundred women are actively involved in the cultivation of this variety and this will be extended to several villages in the coming years.

The story reminds that economical value is critical for adoption of local cassava variety and question remains in other neglected and underutilized crops, how we will create economical ,social and cultural values for other neglected and underutilized crops. How to ensure the participation of various actors for the scaling up the concept and what are the institutional support and policy changes needed to promote local crops.

The journey from arms to agriculture

The turbulent history of the Republic of Congo with its troubled transition from centralized planning under a Marxist government to a market economy, together with economic mismanagement, military coups and brutal civil conflict during the 1990s has definitely marked the people of this country.

The Republic of Congo, once one of sub-Saharan Africa’s main oil producers, today has more than 40% of its 3.7 million people living under the poverty line most of whom live in rural areas earn their livelihoods as smallholder farmers and fishers.

The country’s economy relies on subsistence agriculture and livestock. Cassava, rice, vegetables are among the main agricultural products and the population is also engaged in rearing small ruminants.

The civil wars of 1993-1994 and 1997-1999 have had a devastating socio-economic impact on the country. During the civil war all fundamental and foundational infrastructure was destroyed. More than 800,000 people were displaced, the population suffered from severe food insecurity and many young children became soldiers.

Once the civil war came to an end, the United Nations family began its post-conflict effort. In 2000, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in an effort to reintegrate the displaced people and encourage child soldiers to surrender their arms, launched the seven year «Action Communautaire pour le Rétablissement Post-Conflit» project. This project provided basic social services and helped the population to engage in economic activities.

In 2009, building on the UNDP project, IFAD funded the Rural Development Project in the Likouala, Pool and Sangha Departments (PRODER3).

“The objective of this project is to increase the production, productivity and income of poor rural people in a sustainable manner and encourage the young people to put down their arms”, explains Dominique Kenga, Coordinator of the IFAD-funded Rural Development Project.

The project reaches out to 160 villages and covers 15,750 households. The 62,800 poor rural people benefitting from this project are engaged in in the local cassava-based farming system, fisheries and livestock related activities.

The project is enabling farmers to produce, multiply and disseminate improved, disease-free cassava planting materials and seeds. It is providing training and agricultural extension services to give smallholder farmers full access to inputs and know-how. And it is also financing the rehabilitation of rural roads to better connect the over 600 villages.

“One of our other priorities is to encourage the 3000 young people, living in the Pool department, to put down their arms and start engaging in agricultural related activities”, says Kenga.

“During the civil war, Pool department was very badly hit. Things got really bad back in 1993. During this period, many died and as result families were shattered and many young people ended up on the street”.

“For these young people the only way to survive in the fury of the war was to take up arms”, explains a visibly moved Kenga. “What was devastating was the fact that almost 100% of the 3000 young people living the Pool department had become child soldiers. So after the unrest, we had a huge challenge at hand.”

Using rural radio, Kenga and his colleagues launched a campaign to encourage the youngsters to surrender their arms and to embrace agriculture.

“Convincing a young person who has experienced nothing but violence in his or her life is a Herculean undertaking. And we are dealing with 3000 devastated and shattered souls and bodies”, clarifies Kenga.

“The physical and psychological impact of the violence experienced by the youth is beyond words. Our challenge is not only to convince them to put down their arms and go back to the farms, but more importantly to do so in a peaceful and harmonious manner. The last thing we want is for them to act as aggressor and be disrespectful to their parents and other villagers. We want peace!”

To overcome this immense challenge, Kenga and other PRODER3 colleagues provide every young person who surrenders their arms and takes up agriculture between 25,000 to 50,000 CFA and 1.5 acre of land, along with inputs such as seeds, fertilizer. Mostly, the disarmed and demobilized child soldiers cultivate the land belonging to their family. If they are landless, PRODER3 facilitates a renting arrangement where they pay an annual rent of $50 to work on the land.

“We are going further than agriculture and are encouraging them to also engage in fisheries, raise poultry and rear small-ruminants”, clarifies Kenga.

“Farming in Pool department is very much a manual activity and at best the smallholder farmers can produce approximately 2 tonnes of cassava a year, of which 60% is used for local consumption mainly in the form of foufou – processed cassava.”

The goal of Kenga and PRODER3 staff is to ensure food security and transform farming into a viable business. This is why the farmers are now using part of their income to invest in better inputs.

“Our vision is to have an economy based on modern agriculture, an economy whereby we are not dependent on imports but can ensure food security for all”, says Kenga.

“So far we’ve managed to disarm 20% of the young soldiers. Our goal is to disarm the remaining 2400, build a peaceful society based on respect and trust. A society where everyone can lead a decent life, can put enough food on the table and is engaged in a profitable and dignified economic activity".

“Building a better future starts at home. Now that the leader of these youngsters has disarmed and is part of the government, we hope that we can build a peaceful and better future”, says Kenga with smile.

Only time will tell, but definitely, Kenga and his colleagues are on the right track to build a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Likouala, Pool and Sangha Departments.