Why financial illiteracy can’t be overlooked among farmers

Food security is a matter of concern for governments and global organisations like the UN and the FAO, to the extent that locally, in Ghana, we have also seen intentional policies by successive governments to make food more accessible and at lower costs.

Issues of food production, transport, and pricing are plainly offshoots of rural-urban dynamics.

A great majority of food consumed in the cities is definitely grown in the rural hinterlands, where farming lands are available in vast acreages.

Travelling to the cocoa growing regions of Ghana, from the Western North to the Western South, Ashanti to Bono, Bono East and Ahafo, Eastern Region, Central and Oti regions, between January 2021 and June 2023, it was instructive to note that most cocoa farmers also double up as food crop framers.

They practise mixed cropping by growing plantain, cocoyam, and cassava, among other crops, alongside their main preoccupation of cocoa.

In the period of three years, I have met and interacted with over 3,000 farmers for relevant socioeconomic information, and my observation seems to cut across all the farming areas I have been to, as well as various tribal groupings.

What I found among the Ashantis, I saw among the Bonos, the same among the Dagatis, and not different from what I saw among the Akyems, Kwahus, Ewes, Krobos, etc.

Financial literacy

Most farmers I encountered knew very little about their personal finances and a good majority of them don’t have bank accounts, and surprisingly, they don’t even operate a mobile money account.

Though this was not my mandate, it kept me wondering why it was the case, leading me to investigate the impacts of financial illiteracy among those who feed the nation.

Admittedly, most farmers are not privileged to have had any formal education and as such don’t possess any know-how with regard to the issue at stake.

However, this does not rule out the impact their lack of understanding in matters pertaining to their finances has on them and their productivity at large.

If farmers are equipped with the right financial skills they need, I am sure it will contribute to a boost in production; savings and microfinance training, how to open and operate bank accounts, how to operate their mobile money accounts, how to keep their own mobile money pin codes safely, how to apply for bank loans, are all key areas farmers need basic knowledge of.

Task

Stakeholders must rise to the task, insurance policy institutions must look in the direction of farmers.

Information must be designed and made available in the rural areas, where these farmers live, and the very interior areas, where food is produced should not be left out in poverty reduction strategies.

Ignorance of how they can set themselves up to access loans to boost their production or how to save the little income they make must not be allowed to derail the country’s attempts to meet sustainable development goals of poverty reduction.

Farmers must not only be equipped with tools, inputs, equipment, and machinery without relevantly positioning them with the basic knowledge and literacy skills they need to manage their income and financial commitments.

Financially knowledgeable

A financially knowledgeable farmer can better negotiate dealings that have to do with investments in their farm projects, can access financial resources, and can better run their families, even domestically.

I would not be able to say how many times I have heard of farmers who have had to resort to putting up their farms for sale to be able to meet emergency family needs, sometimes for embarrassingly paltry amounts of money.

These stories abound and it is the order of the day in these farming communities.

Finally, overreliance on seasonal crop production cycles further exacerbates their plight.

When it is crop season, they become well-to-do and it is the other way round when the lean season sets in.

Coupled with good financial literacy programmes, farmers can also be trained in many vocations on the side to help them earn a living for their households.

Poverty among farmers in the end will translate into a fall in productivity much more than we can expect and it is time to act.