Farming Potential: The Power of Women in Ghana
Potential is found in farming, and realizing that potential is found through women across the globe.
Enter Hopeline Institute, the Adansedie Initiative, and Partners Worldwide. This partnership works in a community in the Upper East Region of Ghana that is rural, poor, and generally overlooked for connection to resources—leading to marginalization and economic exclusion. But the people in this community are hardworking, eager to learn, and able to collaborate—resulting in strength, ambition, and hope.
It is in that spirit of collaboration that women in the agricultural community of Sandema in Ghana have been equipped with access to resources that increase their ability to succeed as small-scale rice farmers. Working in three groups of ten (the Central GNBC Group, the Kori GNBC Group, and the Bilinsa GNBC Group), the women cultivate adjacent plots of land obtained through a group loan. This funding was distributed through the Adansedie Initiative by Hopeline Institute, a local community institution connected to Partners Worldwide.
Because of this funding, the farmers’ acreage of land for farming increased from 1-2 acres total to 7.413 acres (3 hectare). In addition to land, they were able to use the added resources to implement more advanced agricultural techniques through training and access to certified seeds and fertilizer. In previous seasons, the farmers cultivated between 2.9-3.5 tons of rice per hectare, but as a result of the funding for farmer training and improved practices, they were able to increase their harvest to 4 tons per hectare for a total of 12 tons of rice harvested.
The women sell the rice at GHS 9,000/ton for a total of GHS 108,000 in income. With expenses totaling GHS 28,206, their gross profit comes to GHS 79,794, with an estimated net profit of GHS 40,000 (which translates to USD $7,692). Going forward, they believe that further support through the program will enable them to obtain more acreage and aid in their ability to fine tune their best practices to increase the projected yield to 4.5 tons per hectare.
The word Adansedie, in terms of the Adansedie Initiative, means “testimony,” as the purpose of the initiative is to be a testimony through its work and impact. Each of the women who have been equipped through this initiative also serve as a testimony—a testimony to resilience, a testimony to determination, and a testimony to overcoming poverty one step at a time.
