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Gushegu, Ghana – About 3,000 farmers and their families from three communities of the Gushegu District in the Northern Region of Ghana are to benefit from a dry season gardening initiative under the Food Security and Resilience project implemented by World Vision.
The dry season gardening initiative would directly engage 90 farmers, 30 each in the Bulung, Watungu and Kpatinga communities.
“Indirectly, it would also benefit between 2500 and 3000 families and other community members in the three communities”, Nicholas Ackah Baidoo, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Project (WASH) Officer for the Gushegu Cluster.
The Gushegu District is among the poorest districts in the Northern Region with fewer economic opportunities available for citizens to make income.
According to the Food Security and Resilience Project Officer, Pastor Joseph Alhassan, whereas about 92 percent of the district’s total population is economically active, 18.2 percent are not.
He pointed out that, about 88 percent of the population in the district is engaged in agriculture as their main source of survival.
Pastor Alhassan further mentioned deforestation, bush burning, charcoal production and inappropriate farming practices as challenges confronting the district in the area of agriculture.
Mr. Baidoo told Savannah News that, the dry season vegetable gardening was a means to provide nutritional sources of food for the beneficiary farmers and their families as well as other community members.
He also emphasized the fact that, the initiative would serve as a source of income for the farmers during the dry season when most of them often do not have any work to do to earn an income.
Meanwhile, the overall goal of the Food Security and Resilience project is to ensure that, all children especially the most vulnerable and their families, have improved household food security and resilience.
Among other objectives, the project also intends to increase food crops production and livestock among beneficiaries, increase their resilience to economic shocks and increase economic opportunities for women and young people.
By Savannahnewsonline.com/Philip Liebs
