The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), as part of its mandate to enhance productivity and livelihoods among small holder farmers, is providing technical, logistical, and operational support to vegetable farmers nationwide. With support from the Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC), the Association is implementing a one-year project titled “Enhancing Vegetable Productivity and Market Linkages to Improve Job Creation and Sustained Incomes for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana.”
The project’s objective is to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, particularly women and youth, by increasing vegetable production and market access, creating new jobs and income opportunities, and enhancing the resilience of the vegetable value chain. This will contribute to food security, poverty reduction, and economic growth. At least 3,000 onion, tomato, pepper and cabbage farmers in 10 districts will benefit from capacity-building sessions, seeds, fertilizers, and market access for their produce. Three zonal inception meetings were therefore held in the Middle, Southern, and Northern belts to mark the project’s implementation.
The inception meeting for the Middle Belt was held at Chiraa Community Center, in the Sunyani West district in the Bono Region on Friday, 20th December, 2024. The meeting brought together thirty-two (32) participants drawn from Sunyani West & Techiman Municipal of the Bono and Bono East region respectively. Mr. Benjamin Kwadwo Sarfo, a programs officer of PFAG. indicated that the project was expected to create an enabling environment for sustainable vegetable farming, promote food security and ensure poverty reduction, among smallholder vegetable farmers in Ghana. He reiterated that, the project will improve technical and agronomic capacities of farmer groups, especially women and youth groups for sustainable food production, enhance the production capacities of farmers in vegetable production through an input credit model and improve access to sustainable markets and incomes for smallholder farmers.
In the Southern belt, the inception meeting took place at the Kamgbunli Community in the Ellembelle district in the Western Region on Friday, 27th December 2024. The meeting brought together one hundred and seventy (170) participants drawn from Ada East & West in the Greater Accra, Fanteakwa North & South in the Eastern Region, Ellembelle in the Western region and North Dayi in the Oti Region. Mr. Wepia Awal Adugwala, the National President of PFAG urged members of the association present to take a keen interest in understanding the project to communicate to the various farmer groups they were representing. He retreated that it would be prudent for every peasant farmer to embark on vegetable production as a business due to its food and income security prowess.
At the Northern belt, the inception meeting was held at Paga in the Kassena Nankana West District in the Upper East Region on Tuesday, 31st December 2024. The meeting brought together Twenty-nine (29) participants drawn from the Kassena Nankana West and East in the Upper West Region. Mr. Isaac Pabia, a board member and the PFAG regional focal person of the Upper East region, highlighted the project goal stressing that the project will support beneficiaries with farm inputs such as climate-resilient vegetable seeds and provide them with equipment such as soil testing kits, knapsack sprayers and mini machines like solar-powered water pumping machines to enhance their vegetable farming. He further revealed that the project was necessitated to curb the challenges smallholder vegetable farmers face in terms of initial investment capital at the beginning of the farming season.
Mr. Bismark Owusu Nortey, the Executive Director of PFAG, in his address during the zonal inception meetings, indicated that the one-year project, which commenced from September 2024 to August 2025, would focus on improving the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, especially adult women and youth by increasing vegetable production and market access and creation of new jobs. The project will also seek to improve income opportunities and enhance the resilience of the vegetable value chain, thereby contributing to food security, poverty, reduction and economic growth.
The project, according to Mr. Nortey, was necessitated by Ghana’s overreliance on vegetable imports to meet domestic demand despite the vast arable land and favourable climatic conditions for the production of these vegetables (tomato, pepper, and onion). This situation has contributed to a high import burden and worsening exchange rate, leading to a high cost of living. He acknowledged the role of smallholders to improve production but was unable to do so due to several obstacles, including the high cost of production and climate crises. The PFAG, therefore hopes to use this project to complement smallholder farmers’ efforts in vegetable production and also create job opportunities for the youth and adult women to adopt vegetable farming as a business.
The session also allowed participants to share their insights on sustainable farming practices as well as their concerns about the modalities of the project implementation. Participants appreciated the project scope and were committed to foreseeing its success in the selected districts. Other concerns shared were the need to adhere to the timeliness of inputs supply, quality of seeds and fertilizer supplied and ensuring sustained markets for their produce.
In the end, members of the association pledged to strengthen their existing farmer groups in order to possess a formidable voice and provide support to promote their farm businesses and were grateful to KIC for the funding support of this project.