Did you know that half of Ghana’s female population is in agriculture?
Vida Baazaantaayele is a soybean farmer in Piina, Wa. This past farming season, Vida suffered heavily from post-harvest losses due to insufficient storage facilities. Farmerline and MEDA’s GROW Project have launched a partnership in order to educate women in the Northern region of Ghana on food security and sustainable households. The hope is to address challenges such as Vida’s through filling the knowledge gap.
In December 2014, Farmerline and MEDA visited Vida and 40 other female smallholder farmers in the Lambusie-Karni district of Ghana. Workshops such as these are encouraging for women to form their own farming associations, a critical means of support for many women independently working in agriculture. Not only do farming associations allow farmers to collectively negotiate competitive prices, but it also opens the communication lines to provide a greater sense of community among those living and working together in the same district.
Over the course of the workshop, Vida took Farmerline to show her method of drying soybeans. During this time together, Farmerline was able to teach Vida new, simple techniques for storing and drying soybeans in order to reach optimum levels of moisture and greater yields. Techniques included running your hands through the grains and storing grains above the floor.
Vida is one of 110 million African women making a living in agriculture. Farmerline supports small-scale farmers, like Vida, by sending agriculture-related information directly to farmers’ mobile phones in the form of voice calls.
Stay tuned as #Farmerline continues to tell the stories of small-scale farmers in Ghana over the upcoming months.
To learn more about the initiative, visit us at www.farmerline.org or follow us on social media @farmerline
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