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For the last three years, the WISE project has supported women farmers and aggregators to ensure they are economically empowered and have improved well-being and inclusive economic growth. Selected women farmers have been provided the necessary support to increase farm yield, ranging from improved soybean seeds for planting, ploughing their fields, and providing inoculants. Aside from the support for soybean production, the project has also introduced some of these women to green businesses, including mushroom, snail, and honey production.

The WISE project goes beyond supporting women to become economically capable. The project also prioritises the nutritional well-being of the communities, especially women and children. To ensure this, the WISE project team at URBANET organised a two-day Food Exhibition and Nutritional training with the help of a few experts.

The two-day programme was executed in two communities within the Tolon and Kumbungu districts in the Northern Region, with over thirty participants participating in each community. These participants were selected to represent the various communities in which the project is being executed. The key purpose of the training was to ensure that women were able to initiate businesses by adding value to the raw products they produced or harvested. It was also aimed at introducing the women to the various ways they could utilise their produce and transform it into meals that are nutritionally beneficial for them. The major food products that were used in the training included soybeans and mushrooms, as these two are the major foods produced by a majority of these amazing women.

The main aspect of the event was taking the women through how they could incorporate soybeans and mushrooms into various meals to enhance their nutritional status. They were taken through the preparation of both local foods that are common in their households and healthy paps for the infants. Some of the meals included soybean kebab (as a substitute for meat), soymilk, “tuubani”, mushroom pap, “tombrown”, and some mushroom beverages, amongst others. As important as it is for these women to adopt these nutritional ways of feeding, they were encouraged to use this as an opportunity to start a business venture and make use of previous training on branding and marketing to grow them.

Despite the vast establishment of microfinance institutions to provide banking services for the less privileged and alleviate poverty, not everyone has access to or the capacity to meet the banking terms. For this reason, Savings and Loan Groups (SLGs) have become the preferred alternative for a lot of people, especially women smallholder farmers (WSHFs) in various rural and even urban communities in Northern Ghana. A major outcome of the GROW2 project is to provide economic support to women in the various project zones; the project has identified the significance of these SLGs to women in this aspect. To this effect, provision is made to provide existing and new SLGs with the necessary knowledge, skills, and tools to help them derive more benefit from them.

During the course of the project’s implementation, URBANET’s project officers identified certain communities with existing SLGs, however, they had limited knowledge on how to maximise the impact of their savings as well as a more secure place for their daily contributions/savings. These existing SLGs have been recruited as clients of the GROW2 project and have received orientation on the project as well as its impacts on their groups and other aspects of the project they would benefit from. 

Most of these SLGs had their daily savings placed in plastic containers, food flasks, and other items that were not fit or secured to be used as “mini banks” or savings. With credit to URBANET’s Project Officers, these groups have been taken through a series of intensive training sessions on how to keep records, track members’ loans, ensure consistency of payment by members, and maximise and use benefits from the savings to transform the groups and assist members when the need arises. They have also been provided with secured boxes with locks to contain their daily savings in order to improve security and avoid theft.

URBANET has and will be identifying more interested women in the various Zones of Influence to create SLGs to improve their economic and financial status and their living standards. The Project also aims at ensuring that, through the SLGs, the women or clients are able to afford the many innovative technologies to assist them in their farming and entrepreneurial activities. 

The Empower Project is a youth-focused project implemented by URBANET Ghana with sponsorship from the EMPower-Emerging Markets Foundation to support about 100 youth (70 females and 30 males) between the ages of 20 and 24 with green skills to improve their livelihood and provide employment opportunities for them. The project aims at Empowering Young People in Transformative Beekeeping within four districts in the Northern Regions, including Yendi, Central Gonja, and the Nanumba North and South districts. 

The project aligns with URBANET’s vision to empower young people, improve livelihoods, provide a means to mitigate unemployment among the youth, and especially support girls to reduce the time spent on unpaid care work to provide more time for them to concentrate on their growth. URBANET has identified the need to provide avenues for the youth to live to their full potential, acquire skills that are beneficial to them and their communities, and provide a space for them to develop existing business ideas as well as the tools to start new businesses. The Empower project is focused on beekeeping as a green skill and source of employment for the beneficiaries, as well as a way to empower them to explore the existing market space.

 The project will, before implementation, select beneficiaries across the four districts based on the chances of whether beekeeping can thrive and on sensitization by the project lead, the GESI Coordinator at URBANET, Madam Nimatu Siisu, with the assistance of project officers. With support from experts, beneficiaries will be taken through intensive training on beekeeping and honey-making, marketing, and branding. They will be provided with protective gear, boxes for beehives, necessary tools, exposure, and access to trade fairs and conferences.

The project will ensure that, during and by the end of its implementation, beneficiaries can master the techniques of beekeeping and honey making, train others within their communities, be self-employed, and be empowered to be change agents. Aside from these, the URBANET’s focus on beekeeping is also an effort to promote green livelihood options in the face of climate change and associated challenges to smallholder farmers, especially women and youth, within these communities and the country at large, as beekeeping has a positive impact on the environment as it serves as a source of pollinators for crops, especially shea and cashew plants.

The Gender Family Module (GMF) is an aspect of the GROW2 project that deals directly with couples within the Project’s Zone of Influence. The Module focuses on raising awareness about gender equity within households, promoting women’s participation in decision-making, improving well-being, and other ways of promoting positive development within households and the community at large. Although the module deals with couples, its primary focus is creating a conducive environment for couples and improving the well-being of the children.

The GMF has successfully been implemented in the Nanton district within the Northern Region, and some of these couples were able to share the impact of the programme on their households during the official launch of the GROW2 project in July.

Following the successful implementation of the GMF in the Nanton district, and the impact it has had on several couples and households, there was a need to expand to other districts. For this reason, the GMF concept is currently being implemented in two communities within the Central Gonja District; Sankupe and Tidrope, with about 41 couples and 53 couples trained on the concept, respectively.

During the implementation, couples were taken through the Triple Role, which includes the Reproductive, Productive and Community Management Roles which was facilitated by the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Coordinator, Madam Nimatu Siisu, and the GROW2 Project Officer, Mr. Ibrahim Abdallah, for Central Gonja District. A great number of additional couples showed interest and were asked to be registered with the Assembly Men, who act as the Village Agents for the communities. 

The need to reduce violence between spouses and increase codependency amongst them is as significant as supporting the clients of the project in terms of their businesses and farming activities. As much as the project intends to build economic freedom for WSHFs, it also takes into consideration the environment in which they live and the kind they raise their children in. For the rest of the period of GROW2 project implementation, more communities within the Zones of Influence will be scouted to ensure they benefit from the GMF.

In an exciting step towards making rural communities better places and giving the people the opportunity to take charge, Urbanet is organising a special training for 110 selected Village Agents (VAs) to ignite their passion for change and progress, ensuring the success and sustainability of the GROW2 project. The number cuts across the seven districts of Urbanet’s operation within the Northern and Savannah Regions and is led by Project Coordinators and Officers.

The primary focus of this training was to educate them on the purpose of the project and equip them with the necessary skills and capabilities to assist Women Smallholder Farmers (WSHFs) to improve their livelihoods. Other aspects of the training included taking them through their roles as VAs, knowing the core mandates of the project and what it seeks to achieve, education on Village Savings and Loans (VSLAs), and other modules of the GROW2 Project. Village Agents are also to serve as leaders of the GROW2 project at the community level, taking charge of representing clients and assisting project officers in contacting and providing the needed support to the clients.

Urbanet’s Project Officers that led the training emphasised the need for VAs to support WSHFs, perform their roles as expected, and seek assistance from project officers when facing problems. They encouraged VAs to take up the mantle and ensure that the impacts of the project are sustained. They added that it was important for them to ensure that the WSHFs received the necessary support by representing them well and keeping in touch with project officers.

The recruitment and training of VAs commenced earlier this month, and most communities have been covered already. This is to ensure that clients of the project have leaders within their communities who will serve as their representatives and also a link between them and their respective project officers to maximise success for both parties. The selected and trained agents so far have shown great enthusiasm for the new role and are willing to support their Project Officers in their own ways.

In order to ensure efficiency and an increase in yield, the GROW2 project has devised ways to determine the germination strength of seeds as a way of supporting farmers with the expertise for innovative farming, improving crop health, and increasing production. Various seeds within the food value chain that the project is working on are being experimented with to measure the rate at which they can be produced with or without the use of environmentally friendly agricultural amendments.

 A field within the project areas of GROW2 under the supervision of Urbanet Ghana was selected and prepared for the demonstration of groundnut seeds with inoculants. This was necessary to evaluate the impact of inoculants on the seed as well as the soil. As an advocate for safe agricultural practises and the development of farmers within the Region, Urbanet encourages the use of soil and plant boosters that provide nutrients to and support plant growth and soil fertility in a sustainable way without destroying the environment or reducing the health benefits of the plants. The demonstration field was divided into two parts, some seeds were planted with inoculants and others were planted without, in order to measure the impact on the plant’s maturity.

To ensure that progress is being made, the Executive Director of Urbanet Ghana, Mr. Basit Mohammed Jibreel, together with the Project Coordinator, Mr. Rashid Alhassan, and other project officers, paid a visit to one of the demonstration fields within the East Gonja district to monitor the growth of the plants so far. This was done in order to determine when and where it was necessary to use these inoculants and also to provide the needed support for farmers.

Most communities with clients under the GROW2 project have various demonstration farms for this purpose, and with consultation from experts, Urbanet will be able to support areas that face difficulties with regard to low soil fertility and crop health.

Empowering women is integral to the development of every setting, whether local or international. Ensuring that women are empowered and own their narratives is one of the core mandates of URBANET Ghana. Through the GROW2 Project, URBANET has supported Women Smallholder Farmers (WSHFs) with labour-saving tools to help reduce the time spent on farms as well as increase production. This is through the direct Price Discount support to WHSFs. Under the scheme, the Client (WHSFs) pays fifty per cent (50%) of the Cost (Ghc1250.00) to the supplier and then MEDA GROW2 the other  fifty percent (50%) as well. 

Among the communities that benefited from this initiative were a few within the East Gonja, North East Gonja, Central Gonja, Tamale Metro, Savelugu and Nanton districts in the Northern Region. Earlier this year, some women could purchase Roller Planters with the support of Urbanet’s GROW2 Project Officers and the fifty per cent support from the project, enabling them to increase yield within the shortest time using innovative methods. Most of these women have been able to not only plant their seeds within the shortest time as compared to previous farming seasons but have also been able to use them as a source of income.

Mariam, a client of GROW2 in the Nanton district who owns the Roller Planter, has been able to use the machine for her planting this season and has commercialised it as well. She offers services to people within and around her community with her roller planter for a fee. She mentioned during an interaction with the Project officer that she has been able to make about two thousand Ghana Cedis (GHc2000.00) from renting out her Roller Planter to other farmers. She added, “Using the Roller Planter has made planting easy and time efficient. With this tool, I’m able to plant three acres of land in a day, compared to the one acre I used to plant in previous seasons without the roller planter. I intend to buy an additional Roller Planter to increase the services I render and the benefit therein.”

The Roller planters, among other farm implements, have enabled innovative farming for the farmers that acquired them and those around them. These farmers are transforming their methods and those around them, creating a ripple effect across the communities. Through this project, and guidance from URBANET’s project coordinator and his team, efforts are made to increase impact in other aspects of people’s lives while ensuring its sustainability. Mariam is one of many people who are benefiting from the GROW2 project, and URBANET is looking beyond developing the lives of the selected clients. It aims to ensure that the benefit of the project transcends everyone.

Through sponsorship from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), UBANET Ghana has been able to support Women Smallholder Farmers (WSHFs) receive financial support to purchase farm machinery to ensure less time spent on farms by famers, as well as facilitate efficient farming to increase productive yield. As a Key Facilitating Partner under the GROW2 project, URBANET organizes training on environmentally sustainable agricultural practices as well as Business Development Services (BDS) that are designed upon consultation to support clients. Part of these agricultural practices includes safe and innovative ways of preparing farmlands, planting, harvesting and post-harvest.

The Project Coordinator from URBANET, Mr. Abdul Rashid Alhassan and other field officers of the URBANET’s project zone assisted WSHFs to identify farm equipment and machines needed to ease their daily work on the farms, as well as how to raise the resources to purchase them. WSHFs who were able to identify their preferred machines were led by Mr. Abdul Rashid and his team to acquire them from the Private Sector Partner under the project, Crop Doctor, a farm machinery manufacturing company.

Amongst the machines selected was a Roller Planter for easy planting of seeds of different varieties. Ten WSHFs from different communities within the project zones were provided with these at the Crop Doctor warehouse. However, they were not only, they were accompanied by their husbands and other male champions to receive the roller planters as well as learn how to assemble them. As a result of the Gender Module Family (GMF) element of the GROW2 Project, men within the project zones have been educated on the significance of supporting women, especially their wives.

Agents of Crop Doctor took them through the process of assembling the machine and also educated them on the usage and maintenance of the machine. He encouraged them to call for assistance in case of any difficulty and to monitor the usage and maintenance in order to ensure the longevity of the machine and to get the best out of it. however, project officers will monitor these farmers and provide the needed assistance to ensure they are well acquainted with the new machine.

Many farmers in Northern Ghana, especially Women Small Holder Farmers (WSHFs) have been known to use grains or “farm-saved seed” from their previous harvest as seed for subsequent seasons. This has led to a significant reduction in yields due to low plant vigour, low germination, and even rampant disease infestations. The dwindling yields from farms as a result of the use of grains have ultimately led to low incomes for these farmers.
The use of #Certified(Quality) seeds, on the other hand, has immense benefits for farmers, including ensuring genetic and physical purity of the crops, ensuring more vigorous, fast-growing and pest and disease resistance conditions to a certain extent, and also ensuring uniform growth and maturity of crops. The use of #Certified seed has been shown to boost yields by up to 10–30%.
As the 2023 production season sets in fully, #URBANET, in collaboration with #MEDA under the GROW2 project and some selected market actors in the seed industry, is facilitating access to #Quality #Certified seeds (soybeans and groundnuts) for our #Clients in 7 districts of the Northern and Savannah regions through a Direct Price Discount Mechanism. This will hopefully boost the yields of our #Clients. The GROW2 project is funded by Global Affair Canada.

Access to information and practical knowledge on Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs) and Farm Business Management (FBM) practices is very critical for sustainable and inclusive development in agriculture, especially for Women Small Holder Farmers (WSHFs) who form the majority of farmers in Northern Ghana.
To address this constraint and boost productivity of WSHFs in Northern Ghana, GROWII Project conducted a two-day ToT for some selected Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) on Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs) and Farm Business Management (FBM) in 7 MMDAs under URBANET’s ZOI. The two-day training improved Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) knowledge on #Soybean and #Groundnut production and general Farm Business Management. A total 49 AEAs who received the ToT then cascaded the training to #203 Savings and Loan Groups (SLGs) comprised of a total of #5,075 clients (WSHFs).
GROWII is funded by the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and implemented by MEDA in partnership with URBANET.