100 Multi-purpose Crop Planters for Women Smallholder farmers in Wa 15

USAID Ghana through the Agriculture Technology Transfer project has presented 100 multi-purpose crop planters to women smallholder farmers in the upper West Region to enhance their row planting during the farming season. The Agriculture Technology Transfer Project (ATT), which is funded by USAID Ghana, seeks to promote good agricultural technology practices to smallholder farmers. It is aimed at improving their competitiveness within the value chain for maize, rice and soy production in the three Northern Regions. The introduction of the multi-purpose crop planter seeks to address the inefficiencies in production, as well as cost of labour challenges among women smallholder farmers. This ATT initiative affords the women farmers the opportunity to own the planters by paying 30% of the cost while the ATT project component pays for the 70% through a private partnership. The Acting Mission Director for USAID Ghana, Andy Karas in an interview with Viasat 1 News said the development of the value chain approach is critical in poverty reduction, which is the focus of USAID in the three Northern Regions. SOT 1: Andy Karas, Acting Mission Director, USAID Ghana He also said there is the need to bring women into positions that generate income since agriculture is a vital resource in the country. SOT 2: Andy Karas, Acting Mission Director, USAID Ghana Andy Karas inspected a soy milk processing centre supported by USAID. From Wa, Noah Nash for Viasat 1 News