The one-year project dubbed: “Integrated Farm management and Value-chain development (IFMVD) for women cooperative farmers in the Northern region” is being implemented by the Savannah Integrated Rural Development Aid (SIRDA), a non-governmental organization.

The project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development and Africa Lead, is being implemented in 40 communities in various districts including Mion, Yendi, and Savelugu/Nanton Municipalities and Tamale Metropolis.

Madam Alima Sagito, Executive Director of SIRDA, who gave details of the project during its launch in Tamale, said it was also to contribute to increasing food supply and reducing hunger across the region by increasing small-holder productivity and improving responses to food emergencies.

She said the project would involve increasing capacity of women farmers in the selected districts through the use of sustainable practices to improve productivity. She said it has been identified that women farmers in the four districts faced challenges such as farming on marginal lands, limited understanding of the value chain, poor cooperative practices among groups and limited access to sustainable credit for investment in agriculture activities.

She said the project would help train and facilitate the processes for the farmer-based organisations to develop the agricultural value chain and facilitate the establishment and development of cooperatives into Village Savings and Loans Associations.

She said beneficiaries would form champions of change networks for agricultural transformation in the four districts to share with others best practices to improve agricultural production. Madam Bridget Parwar, Northern Regional Women in Agriculture Development Officer, urged farmers to cultivate crops that had the potential to increase their incomes.

She also advised farmers to ensure that their produce was of high quality to attract more customers.  Madam Fati Alhassan, Executive Director of Grassroots Sisterhood Foundation, urged women to acquire arable land to make good gains in terms of yields from their agriculture business.