Agrihouse Foundation, a non-governmental agricultural capacity building, innovation and project management organisation, has called on Government and individuals to support its “One Household, One Garden” initiative.
Ms Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Executive Director, Agrihouse Foundation, said the assistance would enable them to extend the project to other regions in the country.
Ms Akosa made the call at a media engagement on the initiative being implemented by the Foundation with support from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and United States Agency for International Development’s Ghana Inclusive Agriculture Transformation programme.
The initiative, an intervention project, seeks to enhance food nutrition and security, and livelihoods.
Under the project, very poor, landless households cultivate basic vegetables on small patches of homestead land, vacant lots, roadsides or edges of a field, or in containers or boxes making it sustainable with basic acquired gardening skills.
Ms Akosa said the Organisation spent over USD300,000 on technical and human resources, hence, scaling it up was expensive.
She said there had been calls from the regions the Team visited to increase the number of beneficiaries in all communities, and from other regions and African countries, including Rwanda.
“ What we have done is a testimony that when we are encouraged and supported, we can do more. This a national agenda,” the Executive Director said.
“We are talking a lot of Agriculture in Accra than doing a lot of Agriculture in the regions.”
She said the Implementing Team moved from community to community empowering women, including persons with disabilities, on the importance of backyard farming and the need to incorporate other vegetables to supplement the ones they had already cultivated.
Ms Akosa stated that the Team provided households with starter packs, consisting of vegetable seeds, seedlings, garden tools, mesh fencing wire, organic compost and pesticides, to aid them kick start a backyard garden.
The Executive Director said the second phase of the project targeted 2000 households in the Northern, Upper West and East and North East Regions, including communities in Garu, Nadowli, Sisala West, East Mamprusi, Gushegu, and Bawku Municipal.
About 5000 beneficiaries have been trained on backyard gardening in communities in the Northern and North East Regions.
About 48 leaders of associations of Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) have been trained.
Some 287 PWDs were also trained.
Source: GNA
