Agrihouse distributing seeds and other farm inputs
A 1 House, 1 Garden project, an initiative by the Agrihouse Foundation with support from the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has benefited 5,400 persons in the Northern Region.
Introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic as a food security measure to ensure food security, the project aims at triggering national interest in home gardening.
Of the 5,400 beneficiaries, 92% are women including persons with disabilities. The beneficiaries were equipped with farm inputs such as pesticides, compost, watering cans, fencing wire, and vegetable seeds among others.
The household beneficiaries were assisted by Agrihouse Foundation’s team to set up home vegetable gardens, as well as provide training manuals, and some level of supervision.
Speaking at a media engagement in Accra, Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, indicated that the foundation supplied the seeds together with other farm inputs based on request, and assisted them in the backyard farming process. Over 400 individuals benefited in Accra during the phase 1 of the project.
The foundation is targeting 2,000 households within 17 districts in the Northern regions plus 10 public schools.
“Initially our target was 100 people from every district in the north, but we exceeded the target. Within a short time, some of them have harvested the vegetables and made income,” she said, adding that the “foundation has been able to establish 30/30 and 60/60 greenhouses which also double as demonstration farm site for the women in the north.”
Ms. Akosa further stated that the foundation conducted two forms of training; pre-training and main training exercises in organic farming for the beneficiaries who are mostly farmers, to reduce the cost of purchasing fertiliser, saying, all these initiatives are geared towards empowering women and creating employment for youth, especially our young women in agriculture, with a focus in the Northern Region.
She also appealed to the government and organisations to resource the foundation to help cover other regions in the country.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke