Increase support for women in agriculture - Queenmothers appeal to govt

 Queen mothers in the country have appealed to the government to increase financial and technical support to women who are into farming to improve yields and incomes.

They also urged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to identify towns engaged in large-scale farming activities and provide them with the needed support.

They said such an intervention was critical due to the steady increase in women engaged in farming.

The queen mothers made the appeal at the sixth edition of the “Gathering of the Royals” in Accra last Thursday on the theme: “Seeds of change: cultivating gender equality in agriculture and honouring women’s advancement”.

The event was organised by AgriHouse Foundation, an NGO and was attended by former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings and more than 300 queen mothers and women in agriculture from across the 16 regions of the country.

Among the issues discussed were how to scale up women’s involvement in agribusiness at all levels, collaborating to effect positive change and ensuring sustainable farming activities in communities.

Significance

The Founder and Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, said the event was to allow action-oriented discussions to collectively find common working grounds to lead the advancement of agriculture in the regions.

She mentioned some achievements the event had had over the years to include the successful facilitation of extension support services, deployment of officers to communities that were initially not receiving support and the introduction of the Royals in Agri-booster Module in 2021.

“By this, more than 10,000 farmers have received free soil testing before planting, including the supply of basic inputs,” Ms Akosa said.

Others are creating community entry initiatives, which she said had facilitated and enabled input dealers, machinery and equipment companies, financial institutions and other agencies to introduce products and services to community farmers.

“With more of our aspirations being met, we can agree that at the heart of food systems are women; at the spirit of sustainable farming are women; at the soul of advancing the full cycle participation of women in agribusiness are women!” Ms Akosa added.

Planting for Food and Jobs

The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, Yaw Frimpong Addo, said the government was still implementing the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme under which some challenges in the agriculture sector were being addressed.

He urged women and young people who were interested in farming to contact their district agriculture extension officers for the necessary inputs.

Mr Addo commended AgriHouse for the initiative and said it aligned with the government’s agenda of ensuring food self-sufficiency by 2027.