Yara Ghana Supports Women Farmers With Fertilisers

By Kingsley Asare

Yara Ghana Limited a leading name in the fertilizer industry in Ghana has donated quantities of fertilizer products to two women farmer groups in Ghana.

The donation forms part of the Yara Group CEO Gift to women farmers in Africa which is an annual donation made by the CEO of Yara International to women farmers in Africa.

The donation this year was to provide a complete crop nutrition solution for maize to cover an acre each for a season to 600 women farmers in total (300 women farmers from each group).

The fertilisers donated comprised of the YaraMila Actyva and YaraBela Sulfan, which provides high yields on cereals.

For this year's donation, the various countries within the Yara Business Unit Africa were invited to submit proposals based on the work they have done with women farmers in their respective countries.

The work done with these two women farmer groups by the Yara Ghana team impressed the panel that awarded the donation to Ghana.

The two groups to whom the donations were made are the St. Cecilia Women's Cooperative and Development Action Association (DAA).

The St Cecilia Women's Cooperative inTuna in the Northern Region is made up of over 700 women farmers out of which a substantial number of them are widows.

The group was formed about a decade ago to support women farmers to gain access to agricultural extension trainings, affordable and quality inputs to increase their farm productivity.

The other beneficiary group, Development Action Association (DAA), with 98 per cent of its members being rural women, is an association of farmers and fish processors operating in Greater Accra, Central, Volta and Eastern Regions with the objective of reducing poverty and empowering group members to be self-reliant and to participate fully in their own development.

The DAA is a women farmer group, which came out of FAO project done over 20 years ago named, "Freedom from hunger campaign action for development".

The group currently has a membership of 3,000 which comprise of fish processors, vegetable farmers, livestock producers, maize and rice farmers and cassava processors from Eastern, Greater Accra, Central and Volta Regions.

At a ceremony to present the fertilizers to the DAA at Timber Nkwanta in the Akuapem North Municipality of the Eastern Region,the Managing Director of Yara Ghana Mr. Danquah Addo-Yobo stated that the aim of the presentation was to support the women farmers to increase their yields and improve on their farming business.

'Apart from the fertilizer donation, Yara Ghana shall continue its work with these women farmers in training and sensitisation of members on best agronomic farming practices to ensure that the right application and right farming practices are adopted to deliver high yields' he added.

He said since women are critical in building and sustaining homes, it is hoped that this gesture will also extend to support various households.

Receiving the items on behalf of the DAA, the Executive Director, Madam Lydia Sasu expressed the group's appreciation to Yara Ghana for the donation and noted that it was going to go a long way to boost their productivity and increase their yields.

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