ACTIVITY ONE: INITIATE WEEKLY FARMER- FIELD TRAINING SCHOOLS ON CLIMATE SMART CASHEW PRODUCTION
The facilitator educated the group members on the importance of farmer field schools, the advantages of farmer field schools, objectives, approaches, pest management, crop husbandry practices, produce marketing and principles. Below are excerpts from his delivery
advantages; to increase production efficiently and sustainably, understanding how agriculture inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and pesticides can either complement or disrupt, the ecological processes such as pollination and natural pest control services provided by predatory and parasitic insects.
Objectives; building farmers skills in sustainable farming techniques, enabling farmers to improve their food security and livelihoods and raising awareness of the economic costs of harmful side-effects of pesticides and positive alternatives for pest management.
Approaches; using participatory with little formal education to compare and assess different farming practices in their own field, economic and social context, pest and crop management techniques, traditional farmer knowledge and experiences from other programmes, conventional production approach where calendar-based spraying is recommended, collective action approach and positive gender approach where women are given opportunities to interact with producer groups and gain confidence in interacting.
Pest management; the value of natural enemies in keeping pests in check and experiment with botanical insecticides made from local available plants such as neem tree seed and chilli.
Crop husbandry practices; includes better nursery seedbeds, improving transplanting and making and using compost.
Producing marketing; it support farmers coming together to market their produce more effectively.
Principles; farmer centred, group discovery learning, a learning rather than message focus, competent facilitators, empowerment, system approach and self help.

ACTIVITY TWO: SUPPORT FARM FAMILIES TO UNDERTAKE MIXED FARMINIG WORKSHOP.
A one day workshop was organized on how farm families would acquire small ruminants and integrate them into cashew plantation in their various farms. In attendance were members of Dwamu, representatives from the Banda District Assembly (Social Welfare), the District Director of the Department of Agriculture, Ghana National Fire Service, Forestry Commission/Wildlife and some Traditional Authorities.
Various presentations were made from the Department of Agriculture (DoA), Fire Service and Forestry Commission/ Wildlife.
The presentation from DoA was on mixed farming where he explained what mixed farming is and its advantages. In his presentation, he stated that in mixed farming at least 10% of its gross income must be contributed by livestock activity. So the farm on which at least 10 to 49% of its income is from livestock is called a mixed farm. He added that farmers who are rearing cattle, sheep, goats, poultry and fisheries with crop cultivation are practicing what is called diversified farming.
As part of encouraging farm families to integrate small ruminant (mixed farming) into cashew plantation, he gave advantages of mixed farming and they are below;
1. It offers highest return on farm business, as the byproducts of farm are properly utilized.
2. It provides work throughout year.
3. Efficient utilization of land, labour, equipment and other resources.
4. The crop by products such as straw, bus, fodder etc. is used for feeding of livestock and in return they provide milk and meat.
5. Manures available from livestock maintain soil fertility.
6. It helps in supplying all the food needs of the family members.
7. Intensive cultivation is possible.
8. If one source of income is lost he can maintain his family from other source of income.
9. Milk cattle provide draft animals for crop production and rural transport.
10. Mixed farming increases social status of the farmer

ACTIVITY THREE: ORGANIZE COMMUNITY FORA IN THE PROJECT AREA
A one day Community fora was organized by Dwamu Cashew Farmers Association in Gbao, a project community area. The purpose of the fora was to create an environmental awareness that will change people attitude and behavior, identify opportunities, plan and invest in sustainable land management
. In attendance were representatives from the Banda District Assembly, the Department of the Agriculture, the chief and elders of Gbao, the Assembly member, religious leaders, some club Association members and farmers as well as forestry commission representative.
After the opening formalities, the Chairperson of Dwamu Cashew Farmers Association Madam Grace Afra supported Mr, Sampson Iddrisu highlighted on the overall project objectives, implementation strategies and expected outcomes. They both took the opportunity to introduce and thank the granting agency UNDP/GEF/SGP. The Chairperson was very grateful for the unflinching support UNDP/GEF/SGP has been providing to protect and safeguard the environment through its numerous projects in the Banda District
Mr. Sampson Iddrisu from the Social well Department use the opportunity to high light quarter two activities and charge members to participate fully to achieve the core objectives of the project. He also ask members to work hard to ensuring environmental sustainability since Ghana is on track in achieving the target on halving the proportion of the population without access to safe water, however critical challenges exist in achieving the targets of reversing the loss of environmental resources, reducing the proportion of people without access to improved sanitation, and achieving significant improvement in the lives of people living in slum areas. Although up-to-date data on the rate of forest depletion is unavailable, evidence suggest that the
country is depleting its forest cover at an alarming rate. Between 1990 and 2005, the forest cover has declined from 32.7 per cent to 24.2 per cent. On the other hand, while access to safe water services in rural areas has improved considerably, there has been slow progress with access to safe water within urban areas. Even though Ghana has made progress in reducing the proportion of the population without access to improved sanitation, the target may not be achieved by 2015 if the current trends continue, he added that the contribution to the progress was the rapid rate of reforestation, government has implemented several interventions aimed at restoring the degraded environment and ensuring efficient management of the natural resources and that UNDP has created an opportunity for the people of Gboa community to contribute towards efficient management of natural resources.
Mr. Sampson said government is still facing challenges in achieving MDG 7 is policy enforcement. There is a critical need for stronger enforcement of forestry and wildlife policies and strategies to ensure that forest and wildlife resources are managed on economically viable, socially beneficial and environmentally sound principles. There is also the challenge of inadequate resources (both human and financial) to implement reforestation programmes not only at the national level but more importantly at the district and community level. Other challenge include:
• The fast pace of urbanization and the need to meet the growing demand for water for consumption, industry and commerce;
• Inadequate financial resources required to undertake and maintain huge water projects
• Inadequate infrastructure especially unreliable energy sources to power and pump water to households.
• Pollution of river bodies by small scale illegal miners particularly in the rural areas;
• Substantial regional variations in access to safe water source;
• The vital need to ensure public private partnerships in water provision for urban areas; and
• A more concrete role for communities in the management and delivery of urban water within their areas.
He conclusion , he heartened the participants to attach much seriousness to the project as it will transform their lives. He was very optimistic of successful project implementation and assured all and sundry of the support of the District Assembly
The second speaker of the day is the person Mr, Godfred Bempah Assistant manager of forestry commission in the district talk about sustainable land management and that, the total land area of Ghana is about 23,853,900ha of which 13,628,179ha is estimated as arable land and on land cover/vegetation in Ghana reveals that; in the year 2000 settlements & bare surface covered about 5,370,000ha. but this increased to 7,980,000ha in 2008. Mr, Godfred also major land use in which he said Agriculture employs 54% of active population and 60% of rural labor force accounts for about 75% of exports and 90% of food needs in Ghana, Small scale farmers account for about 80%, Agriculture land has however decreased from 1.11ha/person in 1984 to 0.7ha/person in 2000 he again said, high human population is becoming a threat to land and its sustainability in 1960 population stood at 1.7m,then 2000 at 18.4m, then 2010 at 24.2m and 2017/17 at 29m

ACTIVITY FOUR; INTRODUCE IMPROVED SOIL FERTILITY TECHNOLOGIES TO TRAINED FARMERS
A series of hands-on training sessions was organized to help farmers acquire knowledge on improved soil fertility technologies and adoption of organic farming practices. The following is presentation made by Mr, William Biah who is also the district director MOFA during the training session.
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach that helps to guide actions needed to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support development and ensure food security in a changing climate
• Crop Rotation A farming practice in which the same land is used to grow different crops in successive seasons or years.
Benefits of Crop Rotation
• Increase income
• Increase soil quality
Fallow Leaving a land uncultivated for a number of years to enable gain its fertility naturally
Cover Crops
• Examples are: mucuna, canavalia, …
Crops that cover the surface of the soil mostly legumes
Benefits of Cover Crops
• Suppress weeds
• Improve soil fertility
• Prevent erosion
Reduces evaporation from soil surface
Cover Corps
Green manure is defined as a crop or plant that is grown and then intentionally ploughed under to improve the underlying soil.
Benefits of Green Manure
• Adding organic matter to the soil releases important plant nutrients, such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous, plus trace minerals that come from the decomposing organic matter after you dig the crop into the soil
• Improved soil condition,
• Decreased weeds,
• Increased water-holding capacity and
• Decreased soil loss via erosion.
The green manure treatment can dramatically improve poor soils, and it is excellent for maintaining already healthy soil
Farm Yard Manure

Manure is organic matter, mostly derived from animal faeces except in the case of green manure, which can be used as organic fertilizer in agriculture
• Animal manure is often a mixture of animal faeces and bedding straw, example from a stable, a kraal…
• Farmyard manure refers to the decomposed mixture of dung and urine of farm animals along with litter and left over material from roughages or fodder fed to the cattle.
• Composting is the making of compost
• Compost is the decomposed remnants of organic materials. It is usually of plant origin, but often includes some animal dung or bedding.
Benefits of Adding Compost to Your Farm
• improves soil structure in all soils, and therefore
• improves water retention in loose, sandy soils;
• improves drainage in heavy, clayey soils;
• prevents the soil surface from crusting, easing the emergence of seedlings;
• resists compaction, making it easier for roots to penetrate the soil;
• helps balance pH, making alkaline soils more acidic and acidic soils more alkaline;
• provides a good environment for the microbes, earthworms, and insects that break down soil constituents into plant nutrients;
• nourishes microbes that protect against some plant diseases;
• reduces the need for other soil amendments and for fertilizer;
• provides many micro-nutrients and low levels of macronutrients;
• improves the soil’s retention of nutrients, thus increasing the amount of time they are available to plants;
• slows the leaching of nutrients, thus preventing them from reaching and polluting water;
• encourages healthy plants, thus reducing the need for pesticides and fungicides.
Benefits to the Environment
• reduces the amount of garbage in landfills, and therefore
• reduces the greenhouse gases produced by hauling garbage;
• reduces the amount of methane produced by landfills;
helps prevent runoff and soil erosion
• helps remediate (decontaminate) polluted soils, binding some contaminates in the soil and increasing plant uptake by others, allowing their removal from contaminated sites;
• reduces the need for environmentally damaging pesticides and fertilizers.
Conservation Agriculture is a set of soil management practices that minimize the disruption of the soil's structure, composition and natural biodiversity
CA Principles
• maintenance of permanent or semi-permanent soil cover (using either a previous crop residue or specifically growing a cover crop for this purpose);
• minimum soil disturbance through tillage (just enough to get the seed into the ground) ;
• regular crop rotations to help combat the various biotic constraints;
CA Management Practices
• utilization of green manures/cover crops (GMCC's) to produce the residue cover;
• no burning of crop residues;
• integrated disease and pest management;
• controlled/limited human and mechanical traffic over agricultural soils

ACTIVITY FIVE: IDENTIFY, NEGOTIATE WITH APICULTURE TRAINERS
The facilitator educated the group members on ruminants of bee keeping such as the term beekeeping (apiculture), who a beekeeper is, apiary , why keep bees, requirements, knowledge, bee hives, tools needed, care, diseases and pests and finally harvesting. Below are excerpts from his delivery
Beekeeping (or apiculture); is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in man-made hives
A beekeeper (or apiarist) keeps bees
A location where bees are kept is called an apiary or "bee yard."
Why keep bees? To collect their honey and other products that the hive produces (including beeswax, propolis, flower pollen, bee pollen, and royal jelly), to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers
Requirements; Knowledge ,apiary, bee hives, tools and bee suit
Knowledge; Beekeepers, Books, newsletters etc. trainings and workshops

ACTIVITY SIX: PRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE BEE HIVES TO FARM FAMILIES
Per agreement under the project mandated, each interested farm family should be trained and set up an apiary with no less than ten (10) bee hives within their cashew plantation so far 20 interested farm families has been trained and 20 bee hives has been manufacture and distributed to the farmers under the agreement.

ACTIVITY SEVEN: SET UP REVOLVING CREDIT SCHEME FOR GROUP ON ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOOD SUPPORT THROUGH THE VILLAGE SAVING AND CREDIT SCHEMES.
Since there is no financial/saving institution in the Gbao community, the farmers lacked saving habits. An awareness creation workshop was again held to sensitize them on the need to save money. People who were interested among the Gbao community this time round not the farm families but the indirect beneficiaries to save their money in the saving component of the project were registered and were further trained in the management of the scheme. The registered members were grouped into one with a number 20. The grouping was done voluntarily as members themselves formed their own groups under the guidance of Mofa and Social Welfare and the facilitator. Each of the members was given a registration form to register and membership card to keep records of money to be paid. Also, the group members were given a metal box with three padlocks on it. The box was kept by one member in the group whiles the keys to the three padlocks were kept by three different members. A secretary, (indirect beneficiaries) Kwadjo Nyasem was provided with a note book to record the contributions of the members and also in the membership book (Susu Card). A meeting day and time has been scheduled by the group once a week. Member contributions are paid and recorded on such days. The chairperson for each chairs the meetings. The Agric Extension Agent and one Social Welfare Officer will go round to educate them on simple and improved farming practices such as multiple cropping techniques, row planting, mulching and so forth. Also, knowledge/experience sharing is also to be done.

ACTIVITY EIGHT: MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PROJECT
This is crucial to achieve the expected objectives. The monitoring and evaluation team of Dwamu put in place measures to assess the progress of the implementation. This included the use of work plan, activities scheduled with the implementation plan, random visitation to regular monthly meetings, training programmes monitored, checking of reports on activities carried out among others .The PMT also brought their expertise in the purchase of materials and carrying out of activities. During the monitoring the team also encouraged them to find alternative forms of livelihoods and dedicate themselves throughout the implementation stages.
The team was much particular about the increasing effects of climate change in the area and entreated all farmers to be circumspect in their farming activities so as to safeguard the environment