Rural Growth Programme transforms agriculture

Agriculture has over the years been noted as the backbone of Ghana’s economy.

More than 50 per cent of the country’s labour force is estimated to be in the agricultural sector, as indicated by the 2000 Population and Housing Census.

In spite of this, many farmers in Ghana remain poor, especially in northern Ghana, which boasts boundless agricultural potential.

It was to address this problem that the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), an eight-year agricultural initiative, was formulated.

The programme was launched in 2009 by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to contribute to equitable and sustainable poverty reduction and food security among rural households in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, as well as five other districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The districts are Sene, Pru, Tain, Kintampo North and Kintampo South.

The African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Ghana are co-financing the programme.

After visiting a number of its intervention areas, the Daily Graphic observed that the NRGP had made significant progress towards transforming agriculture in northern Ghana.

Rehabilitation of feeder roads

Under its infrastructural component, the NRGP earmarked about 70 feeder roads, totalling over 600 kilometres, for rehabilitation as a major intervention to open up  production areas to market centres.

So far, over 15 of these roads have been completed and work is still ongoing on the remaining ones.

The completed ones include the Pwalugu-Arigu, Yaga-Gbetouri, Kukuobila-Tamaligu, Tongo-Senti and Tainso-Kogua roads.

It is evident in these communities that life has not been the same since the roads were rehabilitated.

In Arigu, for instance, the regent, Naa John Asabigi, said the Pwalugu-Arigu road used to be in a very deplorable state and that in the wet season, vehicles could not travel to the village.

“Today, vehicles come here regularly to pick people and also carry agricultural produce to the market. We can now take pregnant women and the sick to the hospital without any difficulty,” he said.

Grants for agricultural machinery

One of the innovative strategies that the NRGP has introduced is a subsidy scheme on heavy agricultural equipment for farmers in the beneficiary districts.

Under the scheme, known as matching grants, the cost of farm equipment, such as tractors, planters, harvesters, threshers, and ploughs have been subsidised between 40 and 60 per cent to enable the farmers acquire these equipment.

A commercial farmer in Savelugu, Mr Mahama Alhassan, who has benefited from this scheme, said he acquired three irrigation pumps for 76 farmers in Tamaligu to enable them source water from a nearby river during the dry season.

Irrigation for dry season farming

With the acquisition of irrigation pumps, many farmers are now able to source water from nearby rivers to engage in all-year-round farming and not wait for the rains.

The 2011 Best Farmer at Jirapa, Nyelle Niyogkuu, is one of the farmers who has been assisted by the NRGP to cultivate maize, rice, pepper, groundnuts, butternut squash and okro on large tracts of farmland close to the Black Volta both in the dry and wet seasons.

He told the Daily Graphic that in 2011, he cultivated 10 acres of maize and harvested 130 bags and it was this achievement that made him excel over other farmers at Jirapa and consequently declared the 2011 Best Farmer in Jirapa.

Linking farmers to markets

One bane to agriculture in the country is the lack of market for the tonnes of food produced by farmers.

The NRGP has, therefore, taken the initiative to facilitate a link between farmers and production companies that require some of the produce to feed their industries.

Through the linkage, the farmers have come to understand the crop varieties that are exportable and how to produce to meet the standards demanded by the big industries.

For instance, farmers of sorghum and soy beans have been linked to Guinness Ghana, Ghana Nuts Company and Golden Web.

Other farmers have been linked to major produce buyers such as the Savannah Farmers Marketing Company and the National Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO).

In Tain, the District Director for Agriculture, Mr Francis Ennor, said the maize produced by the farmers was aggregated by middle men, who in turn sold the maize to poultry farmers at Dormaa and other places.

Some farmers at Jirapa, however, complained of low prices being offered by the buyers for which reason they failed to sell large quantities of the maize that they produced through the NRGP’s assistance.

Promoting value-chain approach

The NRGP has successfully introduced the commodity value-chain concept to farmers in its beneficiary areas and the idea is beginning to catch on well.

The value-chain approach ensures that there is some coordination among all the stakeholders from the input dealer to the farmer, the middleman (if any), the marketer, the buyer and the consumer and that at each stage, premium is placed on value-addition and market demand for the product.

Successes attributed to co-financing

In an interview, the National Co-ordinator of the NRGP, Mr Roy Ayariga, said the success of the NRGP was a clear manifestation of the benefits of co-financing.

“One funding agency will not be in the position to sponsor all of these activities and that is why partnership is crucial if we are to make any significant progress in transforming agric and improving the livelihoods of our rural folk,” he noted.

Mr Ayariga said the NRGP was using a multi-faceted approach to address food insecurity in Northern Ghana.

The programme, which still has four years to roll, is premised on commodity value chain development, rural infrastructural development and improved access to financial services by all stakeholders in the production chain.