MOFA supports Upper East women with Credit Facility

Bolgatanga, Aug. 28 GNA - The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in the Upper East Region has for the past five years assisted 14,600 women with a total amount of 14 billion cedis to undertake farming and other income-generating activities. Mr. Roy Ayariga, Regional Director of Agriculture said this when he addressed a forum of women in Bolgatanga. It was under the topic: "Agricultural Policies, Programmes and Employment Opportunities for women".

He said the support was given under Land Conservation and Small Holder Rehabilitation Project (LACOSREP), one of the funding sources in MOFA.

He said women were given credit for livestock rearing, ranging from sheep and goats to cattle.

They also engaged in dry season gardening, paddy rice processing, dawadawa and shea-butter making. Mr. Ayariga said under the LACOSREP, MOFA was also rehabilitating dams and had started negotiating with communities to allocate 50 per cent of irritable land to women instead of the one-third portion they were previously being given. He said MOFA was supporting farmers with both technology and machinery to produce tree crops in a year at the White Volta basin using pumping machinery and women were particularly encouraged to participate as it had proved to be a profitable enterprise. He said under the programme, farmers produce tomatoes or onions from October to January and follow up with maize that is sold fresh when harvested.

He urged women to purchase fresh maize for processing into 'Tom Brown' cereal flour used for porridge that can be sold to schools for the feeding programme. He noted that women were better payers of loans than men and advised them to take advantage of the various programmes of MOFA to better their livelihood. Mr. Ayariga said despite the special focus on women, many men also benefited from MOFA projects, adding that some 7,000 men benefited from seven billion cedis to undertake farming activities in the past five years.