The first phase of the Agriculture Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) Programme under the Feed the Future initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has empowered more women farmers to be productive.
Dr. Emmanuel Dormon, Chief of Party of the USAID-ADVANCE Project has expressed satisfaction at the achievement of the five-year project, which witnessed the involvement of about 17,000 women working to complement government’s efforts towards reducing poverty.
He said with increased support for women in the area of technology and innovation as well as agro-processing, women could contribute about 30 per cent of gross domestic product of the country.
Dr. Dormon said this at a breakfast and knowledge sharing meeting to mark this year’s International Women’s Day in Tamale at the weekend, under the theme, “Inspiring Change – Rural Women to Business Women.”
The International Women’s Day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women, while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action.
He said: “Studies have confirmed that this project has empowered women to support the upkeep of their children’s education. This has reduced conflict between spouses, and facilitated development in the project areas.”
Mr. Dormon said when given the needed support, women could generate and control income as well as invest significant portions of the income in food, health care and education.
He said: “This tells us that the various empowerment supports including linking them to the agriculture value-chain business and the training offered has been good.”
Mr. Dormon announced that the second phase of the USAID-ADVANCE project had been approved and would commence soon.
Ms Bridget Power, District Director of Women in Agriculture Development said women were able to increase crop yield because they learnt faster and always ready to practice lessons learnt from demonstration farms and workshops.
She encouraged women to seek and inculcate more innovative ideas into their work to address challenges relating to post harvest losses.
She said “We can address the challenge of malnutrition, unemployment and poverty when we approach everything we do in the right way.”
Mr. John Mulnye, a farmer testified that through the various trainings under the USAID-ADVANCE project, the living standards of about 500 women small holder farmers had improved drastically.
Source: GNA
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