FAAB: a module of Anoshe Womens‘ group, Chereponi/Ghana

The Anoshe women’s group is located in the eastern part of the Northern Region in Ghana; it has the objective to transform the lives of rural women, their children and largely their families through increasing their income levels making them more responsive to pressing family needs. One of the modules we are using to achieve this goal is the implementation of the Farming as a Business (FAAB) concept. The concept seeks to engage our beneficiaries in farming with a clear intention of making profit after harvesting resulting in an increase in their incomes after sales of their products.

The project started in 2011 with the intervention of the German Stiftung Sabab Lou by grating us a loan of 2,600 euro which was used to hire a tractor and seeds for 50 beneficiaries. The beneficiaries acquire lands with support from their husbands and community leaders, further more the management of the farm is the duty of the beneficiaries with supervision from project managers and community agents.

It must be noted that the biggest challenge for the project was to get access to tractor services during the farming season. Usually only the influential and rich people get access to tractor services because of scarcity and high cost of ploughing, leaving many poor families without any farming. The project sought to break that cycle by engaging a local operator to service our women in that year.

prould Anoshe Women with their Massey Fergusson

Already in the first year the project was so successful that we made high gains for the project and our beneficiaries. The partition rate of the yield was 2 thirds for the women, 1 third for the project’s organization and management. Thus income levels of the beneficiaries increased tremendously and helped them to contribute to the management of their families much better. The organization made sales of its part of 175 bags of soybeans, resulting in an income of GHC 11,375.00.

In the same year the contribution of the project was recognised by the ministry of agric during the regional farmers’ day with a certificate for our immense contribution to the development of agriculture in the district.

With this success strongly behind us, Sabab Lou supported the group to finance the purchase a Massey Fergusson 375, thus enabling us to overcome the challenge of accessing tractor services. With this support we increased the number of beneficiaries from 175 in 2011 to 350 in 2012, resulting in more income for more women and also increasing the reserves account of the group.

Our main concern is to continue making lives better for our hard working women, continue to increase our reserves for the group and become sustainable in the near future. Sustainability as it is always preached is the watch word for management, we plan to meet the increasing demand of more women applying to access our support and also make them more responsible in their various communities.