Take Best Practices to Farmers in Rural Ghana

Alex is a devoted father of four from Kukubuso in Ghana’s Ashanti Region. Each day, he wakes up eager to create a better life for his family. He works hard as a farmer, growing sugarcane, cassava, maize, and plantains, and rearing goats and pigs. For years, though, his dreams felt out of reach. His yields were low, and expenses were high.

Everything began to change when Alex joined Self-Help International’s Agriculture & Entrepreneurship Development (AED) program three years ago. With hands-on training and access to improved seeds, fertilizers, and practical guidance, he discovered simple farming methods that unlock big results. 

One technique, planting crops in rows, completely transformed his maize fields. Today, Alex applies this method in all his home gardens. This approach boosts his food production and improves his family’s nutrition and income. Instead of buying costly fertilizers, he makes rich natural compost. This not only saves money but also enhances soil health and increases crop yields. “I am very grateful,” he says. “I can produce more without spending more. What I learn helps me farm better and provide for my children.”

Teamwork is vital in Alex's journey. His wife, Doris, is a lactation coach, supporting new mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding with SHI’s Nutrition Team. She also works as a petty trader to support their household. Together, they started a poultry business using her earnings to buy 50 cockerels. Although they lost two and gifted some to their neighbors, the family is still raising about 30 birds. Alex plans to expand this into a full poultry farm with additional support from SHI—an opportunity he never imagined before.

Life on the outskirts of the community is not easy. The family lives on their farm and uses solar-powered lights. They manage school fees for two children studying away and care for a newborn. Yet every challenge only strengthens their resolve.

Alex’s progress reflects the power of partnership. Donors who support Self-Help International uplift families like Alex's. This help provides practical tools, training, and confidence to overcome poverty. Your generosity helps multiply harvests, increase income, and build futures filled with opportunities.

When you give, you don’t fund a program, you fuel a family’s hope.

Links:

• How a Farmer's Willpower Is Providing for His Family
• Read more stories about agriculture
• Self-Help International

In many parts of Ghana, food insecurity isn’t just a challenge—it’s a daily reality. But in some parts of the Ashanti Region, a movement is growing, and it starts right in women’s backyards.

Over the past few months, Self-Help International’s Microcredit and Agriculture Entrepreneurship Development teams have trained more than 85 women from five communities—Kwaso, Bedabour, Wrapong, Asuogya, and Abompe—to turn small plots and containers into vibrant home gardens.

Through hands-on workshops, the women learned every step of the process: selecting the right garden site, designing an efficient layout, managing nurseries, transplanting seedlings, identifying pests and diseases, and even making their own organic pesticides. For those with limited land, container gardening opened the door to fresh, homegrown food.

Each workshop participant also received vegetable seeds—18kg (39.68 lbs) in total—including seedlings of pepper, tomato, aubergine, and African eggplant, as well as seeds of amaranth, Jute, Kenaf, okra, and cucumber many nurtured in Self-Help’s own demonstration field. 

For women like Ayishatu from Worapong, the training was eye-opening. “I’ve been farming for years, but I had never planted in rows. Learning to line and peg will make such a difference,” she shared with a smile.

A few weeks after the training, the Self-Help team visited three of these new gardens, and the results are already visible. Plants like okra, cucumber, jute, amaranth, kenaf, and leafy greens are now taking root in family gardens across the region.

And the training is just the beginning. As more women gain the skills and resources to grow what they eat, their families grow stronger, and their communities become more food secure.

Thanks to your support, seeds of change are being planted from the soil to the plates—one woman, one garden, one village at a time.