Take Best Practices to Farmers in Rural Ghana

Promoting the growing and consumption of nutrient-rich crops among rural communities in Ghana is a major priority of Self Help International. Over the years, the Agriculture and Entrepreneur Development Training Centre has promoted the cultivation of Orange Flesh Sweet Potatoes (OFSP), a tuber crop rich in nutrients,especially Vitamin A.

Self Help has distributed tubers and OFSP vine through its agriculture team and nutrition team to communities where malnutrition is prevalent. Self-Help’s goal is to make sure the planting materials remain in those communities and families have access to OFSP to help fight against stunting and malnutrition in young children. 

Results and feedback from partner communities about Self-Help’s OFSP demonstrations have revealed that the majority of tubers get destroyed by pest infestation, especially by millipedes. The traditional method of planting OFSP in the ground has always had risks of severe millipede infestation. Self-Help realized during consultations that other agriculture stakeholders are also facing this problem.

In May 2021, the agriculture team started research to see how well OFSP performs in containers using a growth mixture that would support good tuber formation and reduce pest infestation. Self-Help’s team used mostly rice hulls to prepare the growth mixture, which is a waste product that remains after hulling rice. The team chose the material because rural communities can easily access it. Rice hulls are common in partner communities, and they are often left in the fields after harvesting and hulling rice.

The outcome of the experiment carried out indicated that a 0.55m 2 container is able to produce 38.7kg of tubers with no signs of millipede infestation. Other challenges associated with planting in open fields such as weed control, ridge construction,and  soil hardening up are all eliminated with the planting containers, which makes it easy for people of all ages to grow OFSP.

Self-Help’s team shared the findings from the experiment with other agriculture stakeholders involved in OFSP cultivation. It is also being replicated in Self-Help partner communities, which will lead to the production of tubers free from millipede infestation to help curb malnutrition and stunting.

Self Help International’s Agriculture and Entrepreneurial Program is collaborating with other Self-Help programs to train farmers, women’s groups, and youth groups in partner communities about the methods and results of planting OFSP in containers. Training with Self-Help partners on the methods have been positive, and some partners have already adopted the method and seen better OFSP crop yields.

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In Self-Help International’s partner communities in Ghana, it is common to see children helping their parents on the farm during the weekend and after school. The produce grown on these farms serve as the major source of food for families and provide an income at the local market. One major challenge faced by farming families has been low yields, which has sometimes been caused by not being able to implement good agricultural and environmental practices.

Getting rural farmers to adopt new agricultural practices is one of the major challenges the agricultural sector currently faces. It is difficult for rural farmers to access new or best-practice information, so they do not always know that modified practices could positively impact their crop yields. Their children grow up and either migrate to the cities or take over the farming business, continuing to use the farming practices they learned from their parents. 

Equipping rural children with science-based agricultural and environmental practices plays a vital role in improving the quality of agriculture in these communities because they are directly involved in the agricultural activities on their families’ farms from a very young age. 

To teach children about agriculture, Self-Help introduced the Youth in Agriculture Program in 2018 through the Agriculture and Entrepreneur Program. Currently, eight schools are enrolled in the program, and membership is composed of students from upper primary schools and junior high schools. The eight schools are located in rural communities in the Ashanti Region where Self-Help operates: Nkontomire, Nyamebekyere, Kyereyase, Timeabu, Bedabour, Beposo, Nkawkom and Kukuboso. 

Through the program, the students in these communities are equipped with resources, knowledge in good agricultural practices, and entrepreneurship skills training. Emphasis is placed on hands-on and experiential learning methods. Each club identifies and implements a field project throughout the school year to practice what they are learning and to generate an income to sustain the club.  Lessons learned during the club activities and field visits are carried on to their parents’ farms and their communities. Some of the students have even started their own individual projects at home with support from Self-Help and their club advisors. 

Self-Help’s team knows that the future of Ghana depends on the quality of agriculture and by engaging young people in learning about agriculture, Self-Help hopes to improve family nutrition and local community markets.