The people we work with in Ashanti are mainly subsistence farmers, growing crops like cassava, yam, cocoyam, plantain, groundnuts, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, chilli and wonderful fruit. Cocoa used to flourish, but doesn’t any longer.
There is a nearby government agricultural research station, enabling us to provide quality training in modern farming techniques. We also set up cooperative farms and lend them money to buy farm equipment and fertilisers.
Sometimes we set up a small food processing facility – for example, a shed with corn-starch machinery or machinery to process cassava into a long-life version. This can be kept until there is a shortage or sold in local markets when the price is good. One of our volunteers is setting up a project to sell renovated secondhand bicycles in the villages to help with transport.
For the last two years, we’ve also been running a microcredit scheme, providing small loans for trading purposes to poor women, supported by business training. This scheme has been very successful, because we have set it up and managed it carefully and charge low interest rates. It has been extended to ten villages.
We would like to spread it even faster, and are happy to start new centres under the auspices of friendly NGOs in other parts of Ghana.
