Build the capacity of 60 local women farmers to invest in climate smart farming in order to increase their livelihood security.
Achievements
1.1. The project mobilized resource personnel from the District Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and other Civil Society Organizations in Wa to undertake environmental education on Radio Upper West and Radio Progress whose wide coverage areas include the project area. The weekly awareness creation program is still on-going.
1.2. The project formed a 9-member Project Management Committee (PMC) to organize the communities to carry out work on the project. Members of the Project management Committee were drawn from women groups, farmers, hunters, carvers and weavers, livestock owners, and commercial farmers. This was to ensure that the project incorporates the interests and concerns of different groups of people. The PMC was inaugurated and empowered as part of the project initiation activities.
1.3. Under the directives of the PMC and in collaboration with the MOFA and District Assembly, a consultant was recruited to identify and install solar powered boreholes to ensure reliable supply of water for irrigation.
1.4. The PMC and the District MOFA organized the women into three trust groups of 20 members each These groups were educated on the climate smart principles and register interested members. The group members worked on the lands adjacent to the dugout.
1.5. In collaboration with MOFA, the PMC organized capacity building training for the groups in soil and water conservation management, compost preparation, mulching, and cultivation of crop resistant crops The women were taught on the establishment and maintenance of climate smart farms. A demonstration farm was be established as a learning field for the group members.
Planned Activity 2.
Install community solar irrigation system.
2.1. The PMC worked with MOFA to establish Community horticulture/tree nursery with a total capacity of 2,000 seedling to raise as drought resistant seedlings for the smart farms in the irrigated fields.
2.2. The PMC erected two overhead tanks at strategic locations within the climate smart farming area to facilitate solar irrigation.
2.3. The PMC procured equipment and materials to support simple irrigation in the area using the solar motorized facilities. Basic equipment and materials like water hose, pumping machines, watering cans, wheelbarrows, and drips were procured to facilitate the pumping and distribution of water in the area.
2.4. First round training of farmers in the simple drip irrigation technology and application of organic fertilizer and pesticides was initiated. The project trained 30 women farmers on the principles of pumping and irrigation.