The President of the Ghana Agricultural and Rural Development Journalists Association (GARDJA), Mr Richmond Frimpong, has lamented some cultural practices in some communities in the country that often affect the farm work of female smallholder farmers.
He stated that because of these cultural practices in some communities in the country, married women who were farmers could not engage male extension officers for extension education.
Male extension officers
That, he said, often affected the farm work of these female smallholder farmers in the long run, indicating that “in some communities, married women cannot engage male extension officers because of their cultural practices.”
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on how smallholder female farmers could be assisted to expand their farm works and ensure food security in the country, Mr Frimpong said it was important for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to train more female extension officers in order to address the problem.
According to Mr Frimpong, extension education “is very critical to the survival of every farm because most of these women smallholder farmers are illiterate and sometimes over-apply agro-chemicals on their farms, leading to poor harvest.”
Challenges
Mr Frimpong also expressed worry over the situation in some communities where some female smallholder farmers did not get access to farmlands, saying, “Availability of farmlands to our female smallholder farmers is one of the biggest challenges faced by most female farmers in the country. We should create avenues for female farmers to have access to lands at moderate prices.”
He also said lack of access to credit facilities, ready markets for farm produce and storage facilities for the farmers always constrained smallholder female farmers from expanding their farms and maximising profits from their livelihoods.
Mr Frimpong expressed unhappiness about the lack of standardised pricing systems on most market centres in the country, as a result of which smallholder female farmers were always cheated by food merchants.
He pointed out that the government could put in place measures to buy the farm produce from the farm centres and store it so that the female farmers would be encouraged to expand their farms.
“Because there is no ready market for the farm produce, the merchants decide on how much to pay for the produce and this affects our female smallholder farmers,” he stated.
Mr Frimpong stated that “smallholder female farmers are very important, especially when it comes to ensuring food security and sustainability in the country. Most of these smallholder female farmers produce the vegetables we consume on the markets”.
