Agriculture is supposed to be the backbone of Ghana’s economy, but its main stakeholders, farmers, continue to lose out on its hefty financial benefits.
This is largely attributed to inadequate financial support and resources to upscale their production capacity and the lack of technical know-how to modernize farming.
Small-holder farmers in the Ejisu municipality of the Ashanti region have been introduced to bio-based agricultural innovations to diversify their farming operations while providing accessibility to credit facility to boost their income streams.
Accessing financial support has been a struggle for many farmers and business start-ups in Ghana.
“Accumulating your money to pump into your business is a bit challenging. We need the banks to help us, but the interest rate is so huge that by the time you finish paying up the loan, you will not get anything,” Shietu Mahama Zooley, an aquaculture farmer at Ejisu, noted.
She is just one of thousands of farmers across Ghana who struggle to access credit facilities.
In Ghana, many traditional credit providers like banks and Microfinance institutions are wary of extending credit to small-scale farmers, fearful of associated risks.
The limited accessibility to formal credit forces many farmers to depend on costly, informal loans.
Credit officer at Amantin and Kasei Community Bank Limited, Kidisel Ninwin, says the misconstrued mindset of loan agreement is what shies many farmers away from accessing them.
“Some farmers ran away with the loans or divert the funds. They have the mentality that they have gotten the money from government, which is not so. They think it is for free. Then people around such farmers will think when you take loans from banks, they will chase you,” he noted.
In 2021, a four-year project on “Revenue Diversification Pathways in Africa through Bio-based and Circular Agricultural Innovations (DIVAGRI)” was launched with funding from the European Union.
The project aims at increasing productivity, exploring more income streams, and economic opportunities of subsistence and smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to implement state-of-the-art bio-based innovation.
Deputy Director of the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr. Ernest Baafi, says farming is shifting to a business venture.
“Farmers must understand that we are moving from farming to feed yourself and family to farming to earn income to sustain your family livelihood. This training would afford the farmers opportunity to diversify their farming systems to be able generate more income to support themselves,” he said.
DIVAGRI would enable diversification of crops and increase value addition, create environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
Project Lead, Dr. Shadrach Kwadwo Amponsah highlights some bio-based technologies to diversify agricultural production.
“A potable biogas digester is now required on various farms to generate energy to support their activities. We also have soldier fly larvae production setup that we’ve introduced the farmers to,” he said.
Senior Research Scientist under the project, Dr. Natson Eyram Amengor assures of prospective benefits from the project.
“We have brought potential funders and the farmers together to help support their trade. This will not only end here, but we’d also ensure the farmers are given the needed financial support,” he said.