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The United Nations University-Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA’s) INFoCAT innovation challenge has supported women in the rice farming industry at Aveyime and its surrounding rice farming communities in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region.
The Women rice farmers in the district were assisted by the INFoCAT innovation challenge, which aims to advance women’s and youth economic empowerment in rural areas of selected African countries, including Ghana, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, with solar-powered mobile rice winnower machines, smart solar irrigation set up, grain dryer, maize harvester and green energy generator.
The objectives of the innovation challenge are, among other things, to support the development and expansion of affordable, labour-saving clean energy agriculture technology solutions to save time and reduce drudgery, provide mentorship and access to networking and training.
At the handover of the machines to the women rice farmers at Aveyime last week Thursday, the officials from INFoCAT tested the grain dryer, maize harvester and smart solar irrigation machines with the full participation of the farmers, who learnt with excitement the use of the machines that were going to help improve their rice farming activities.
The Project Coordinator and Research Fellow for UNU-INRA, Dr Ferdinand Tornyie, said the initiative had reached a stage where, after a comprehensive appraisal, the best-performing innovation demonstrating strong commercial viability would be awarded $37,000 in seed capital for upscaling.
Dr Tornyie said some of the machines were designed by students in Ghana and, therefore, stressed the need for students to identify what would be good for them and pursue it for their future. He hoped that the machines given to the rice farmers would help boost their work and economically empower them.
The North Tongu District Chief Executive, Victoria Amefadzi Yawa Doe, on behalf of the beneficiaries, expressed the assembly’s gratitude for the honour done to the women rice farmers in the district.
She said the North Tongu District had the largest landscape and arable land for agriculture in the six traditional areas in the Volta Region and stressed the need for the people in the district to make use of the land by venturing into agriculture, as the assembly had plans to also go into farming on a large scale.
Mrs Doe said that agriculture was her priority and as such, since she took over as the DCE, she had made efforts to get fertiliser from the Ministry of Agriculture for the women rice farmers at Aveyime, Agorveme and others for their farming activities.
“I am also chasing fertiliser and seedlings from the Feed Ghana Coordinator and I hope very soon, more fertiliser and rice seedlings will be brought for you to plant.
Also, we have asked assembly members to look for large tracts of land from their communities for the assembly to support them with large-scale farming to produce more food for the district,” the DCE said.
She said the major problem in the district was that there were no stool lands but rather individual lands, which posed challenges in some cases.
She, however, assured that efforts were being made to ensure her initiative and that of the assembly became successful.
A 72-year-old rice farmer, Margaret Yevu, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said she was happy that they, the farmers, had been assisted with the machines, which would significantly reduce the expenses they used to make on treating the rice after harvesting.
