More than 3,000 women in the Upper West Region have in the last four years received practical training on promoting climate-resilient agricultural strategies for enhanced livelihood.
The women who were drawn from Lawra, Lambussie, Wa West and Sissala East Districts, which are beneficiary districts of ActionAid Ghana (AAG), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), as part of a four-year project, were taken through ecological farming to promote sustainable agriculture and protect the environment.
Speaking at an end–of- year stakeholders’ meeting in Wa on Monday, the Project Officer for the Northern Ghana Integrated Development Programme (NGIDP) by the AAG, Mr Daniel Danyuo, said the women were trained in compost use, mixed cropping, agroforestry, woodlots, planting in rows, among others.
The project, which started in June 2019, sought to promote sustainable agriculture, social protection and decent work in the agrarian sector and to strengthen the capacity of local based civil society organisations to become drivers of innovation in research-based climate-resilient agriculture, related social enterprise and responsive social protection.
The £2,799,354 project, which was funded by the European Commission, is being implemented in Upper East, Upper West, Savannah and Northern regions.
Since the basic aim of the project is to contribute to climate change adaptation practices, the training of the women, Mr Danyuo noted, was to enable them to consciously adopt good agricultural practices to help increase productivity while eliminating climate resistant practices.
He said some 78 beneficiary communities in the four districts had been assisted to develop community adaptation plans as well as train 80 women groups on climate adaptation strategies.
“We conducted a farmer-led research on climate-resilient strategies and disseminated the findings in all the districts and based on the findings, we carried out national level advocacy and media campaign on climate change and building the resilience of smallholder farmers,” he said.
The project officer mentioned that the interventions, which included persons with disabilities, saw the training of beneficiaries on financial management as well as business and income generating activities within the agricultural value chain, among others.
“It was realised that unplanned pregnancies also affected the functionality of women and made them more vulnerable, so we carried out sexual health and reproductive education for some 3,200 people which comprised 70 per cent women in the beneficiary communities,” he mentioned.
The Programmes Officer at the Regional Office of the AAG, Ms Terrence Tienaah, said in ensuring that people made the right choice, there was the need to take a look at resource ownership and access.
“Our aim is to ensure that agriculture is practised in a climate safe environment to ensure that we have enough to feed now but think about the future so that posterity will not judge us one day as to how we have used the environment till now,” she said.
Some participants lauded the project and promised to continue with the group meetings and knowledge sharing in order to sustain the results achieved.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA