Green for Change Ghana officials with cashew farmers in Damongo
Green for Change Ghana in partnership with USAID through its funded Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment (GTI) Activity, has ended its project to build the capacity of smallholder cashew farmers on harvest and post-harvest including nut quality in the West Gonja municipality of the Savannah region.
The project was implemented over six months across six communities namely Soalepe, Bunyanto, Achubunyor, Jonokponto, Taliorpe, and Busunu in the West Gonja municipality in the Savannah region.
The Executive Director of Green for Change Ghana, John Balankoo Sumbo, at the End of Project Evaluation Workshop in Damongo, said they trained 300 farmers on post-harvest management, 300 cashew farmers on effective negotiation and marketing, and 30 lead farmers on best cashew production techniques.
He also indicated that about 2,645 seedlings of different species including cashew, Mango, Baoba, Kapok, Mahogany, and Cassia with over 60% being cashews distributed to farmers in collaboration with the Forest Service Division and World Vision Ghana.
Mr. Sumbo disclosed that throughout the project they learned that the lead farmer approach was a very good module for empowering grassroots structures and deepening sustainability.
“The farmers were excited about the training especially accessing the quality of their nuts so that they can have quality bits to sell at a premium price because these days buyers buy based on quality”.
He again said interest in cashew cultivation particularly for youth groups high and this could be leveraged to reduce youth employment in the area and that opportunities should be created for processing of raw cashew nut (RCN) into furnished or semi-finished products for both local and international markets.
The Executive Director of Green for Change Ghana urged farmers to continue to adopt the practices they have learned for sustainability purposes.
Mr. Ezekiel Akwasi Gariba of the Department of Agric West Gonja Municipality said the training was very timely for the development of farmers in the municipality.
He noted that the buyers of cashew nuts normally buy the nuts at cheaper prices because the farmers are ignorant about how to determine the quality of the cashew nut.
“The buyers normally claim that the nuts produced from here and the north are always of low quality and the farmers do not have knowledge about the quality of the nuts and because of poverty the farmers sell their nuts for low prices with the training farmers have been taught how to determine the quality of a cashew nut and the farmers were very appreciative because they had no knowledge of how to determine quality cashew nut so they can now get good prices for the cashew nuts”.
Mr. Alidu Shahadu, who spoke on behalf of the cashew farmers, thanked Green for Change Ghana for the training adding that it will go a long way to enhance their farming activities and productivity.
BY Eric Kombat, Damongo