Agriculture is the main sector of Ghana’s economy that is contributing significantly to employment, income, food, and household nutrition security.
Along the value chain in agriculture are women. Aside from the crucial role women play in childcare, economic and social development in Ghanaian society, they also lead in food production, processing, and marketing. Women are the forces behind family well-being.
In the Agriculture sector, women play an important role in post-harvest storage and preservation. In spite of these roles, women especially rural women farmers continue to suffer from poverty, and food production challenges. These challenges range from lack of access to fertile farmlands, agriculture inputs, and best agronomic practices.
Addressing these challenges requires a scheme that supports rural women farmers to access agricultural-related services and information to enable them to make informed decisions.
The Sustainer, a women-focused Non-governmental organization has established a scheme that enabled rural women farmers to access tractor services, farm inputs, and extension services. This was not only helping them to expand their farm sizes but also increase crop productivity.
The support also boosted household income and allowed beneficiary women’s households to remain food and nutrition secure all year round.
Lydia Kojo, 42, a beneficiary of tractor service commended the organization and its partners for providing her with essential production services such as tractors service. “Because women do not have enough money, accessing tractor services in a timely manner has always been a challenge. This denied women the opportunity to produce enough to our families and for sale”, she said.
She thanked the Sustainer for supporting women and making access to tractor services accessible in a timely manner.
Lydia is among several rural women farmers in the northern region of Ghana who have benefited from the organization’s support. This, the Director of the organization, Veronica Natogma believes will go a long way to empower women the position them rightly to support their children’s health and education needs.