Through sponsorship from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), UBANET Ghana has been able to support Women Smallholder Farmers (WSHFs) in receiving financial support to purchase farm machinery to ensure less time spent on farms by farmers, as well as facilitate efficient farming to increase productive yield. As a Key Facilitating Partner under the GROW2 project, URBANET organizes training on environmentally sustainable agricultural practices as well as Business Development Services (BDS) that are designed upon consultation to support clients. Part of these agricultural practices includes safe and innovative ways of preparing farmlands, planting, harvesting, and post-harvest.
The Project Coordinator from URBANET, Mr Abdul Rashid Alhassan, and other field officers of the URBANET’s project zone assisted WSHFs in identifying farm equipment and machines needed to ease their daily work on the farms, as well as how to raise the resources to purchase them. WSHFs who were able to identify their preferred machines were led by Mr Abdul Rashid and his team to acquire them from the private sector partner under the project, Crop Doctor, a farm machinery manufacturing company.
Amongst the machines selected was a roller planter for easy planting of seeds of different varieties. Ten WSHFs from different communities within the project zones were provided with these at the Crop Doctor warehouse. However, they were not only, they were accompanied by their husbands and other male champions to receive the roller planters as well as learn how to assemble them. As a result of the Gender Module Family (GMF) element of the GROW2 Project, men within the project zones have been educated on the significance of supporting women, especially their wives.
Agents of Crop Doctor took them through the process of assembling the machine and also educated them on the usage and maintenance of the machine. He encouraged them to call for assistance in case of any difficulty and to monitor the usage and maintenance to ensure the longevity of the machine and to get the best out of it. However, project officers will monitor these farmers and provide the needed assistance to ensure they are well acquainted with the new machine.