Take Best Practices to Farmers in Rural Ghana

Rural poultry production is recognized as an important agricultural activity in many countries. Poultry is generally owned and managed by women and children, and the major source of animal protein in a rural family’s diet is poultry. Traditionally, the weight of village chickens and their egg output are low. Both of these things can be improved with factors like housing, disease control, management, and supplementary feeding. 

Self-Help International estimates that over 90% of rural households in Self-Help’s partner communities in Ghana own poultry.  Accessing veterinary services for poultry in these communities is a challenge in Ghana, and this causes them to lose their birds, especially during a disease outbreak. 

One of the outbreaks that causes high poultry mortalities in Self-Help’s partner communities is the annual Newcastle disease. The Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) states that this disease kills more than 90% of unvaccinated birds during outbreaks between December and February.

Around November 2020, women that owned birds in some of Self-Help’s partner communities expressed concern about how they had lost almost all of their birds during previous years. Self-Help’s Agriculture Extension team did due diligence data collection in five partner communities to confirm the issue the women raised. From the data, Self-Help realized these communities lose over 5,000 birds annually. For sustainability reasons, the team also involved the Department of Agriculture and the Veterinary in dealing with this challenge.

Self-Help’s Agriculture Extension team, with support from MOFA, supported five partner communities - Timeabu, Beposo, Asuogya, Abompe, and Kukuboso - through a mass rural community vaccination program. 3,412 rural birds were vaccinated in January 2021. This exercise involved 132 houses that owned poultry.

In March 2021 during a follow-up on bird's response to the vaccines, the communities were thankful to Self-Help and the community poultry vaccination because they saw a great drop in bird mortality in 2021.  This development will improve poultry output and household nutrition in these communities.

According to nutritionists, including vegetables and fruits in a diet can reduce the risk of some diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic poses a great threat to human health and all aspects of society, including food security. In addition to the individual measures that have been laid out to prevent the spread, people are also recommended to stay strong and healthy to be able to fight against the disease. The Ghanaian diet is largely made up of starchy roots and cereals like cassava, maize, and yam, which are all good sources of energy but lack essential vitamins that can help fight against diseases. The divide between food access in rural and urban communities is stark, and the most malnourished and vulnerable are usually women and children.

Self-Help International is working with rural communities to increase the cultivation and consumption of healthy and nutritious fruits and vegetables. The Agriculture and Entrepreneurship Development (AED) team offers rural communities vegetable and fruit garden training involving hands-on demonstrations and also supplies them with planting materials to start their gardens.

Innocent, an 11-year old boy who lives with his parents in Nkontomire, Ghana, is determined to promote the growing and consumption of vegetables and fruits in his community. Self-Help gave Innocent and his family hands-on training on vegetable and fruit gardening. Self-Help’s AED team also supplied Innocent with vegetable seeds and seedlings to start his garden to feed his family. 

The family had land space around the house which mostly had plantain crops. Innocent, in his quest to start his garden, resorted to clearing a portion of the land occupied by plantain to create space for his garden. Self-Help’s AED team coached Innocent as he started his garden, and he currently has nine varieties of vegetables and fruits. When Self-Help’s staff asked Innocent what he was going to do with the vegetables in his garden, he said that he will make sure he eats some with his family and sells the remaining produce to buy clothes.  

Innocent has started telling his friends about gardening at home and he assists those interested in preparing their backyard for a garden. He also links people to Self-Help’s home gardening project to start their gardens. 

Innocent’s mother is very happy and supportive of the gardening project in her house. She said her son now wakes up with a sense of responsibility knowing that he has a garden to attend to, and she believes they will soon be eating from the garden. She believes her son will be very helpful to the community with the kind of good agricultural practices he is developing and will be able to share his knowledge with other families and farmers in Nkontomire.