The Social Enterprise Development Foundation Ghana (SEND Ghana), has ended a five-year food security project in the Northern Region with beneficiaries being smallholder farmers in that region.

Known as the Food Security through Co-operatives in Northern Ghana (FOSTERING), the programme, which started in 2013, officially ended on March 2018 at Salaga.

The project was implemented in collaboration with the Ghana Co-operative Credit Unions Association (CUA) and the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF Canada), with a US$9 million funding from the Global Affairs Canada and CDF Canada.

“The project in, its entirety, benefitted 4,000 households in nine districts across the region, with small loans for farming cooperative groups to boost food production, improve climate change and increase nutritional addition to diets to reduce the malnutrition level in that area,” Mr. Siapha Kamara, CEO of SEND-West Africa, told the Goldstreet Business.

Across the eight districts, East Gonja, Kpandai, Nanumba South, Nanumba North, Krachi-Nchumuru, Zabzugu, Tatale-Sangule and Chereponi, where the project was implemented, 11 credit unions who have accessed the fund through the support of SEND Ghana have been able to mobilize almost US$5 million to support their activities.

“47 percent of credit union and co-operative leadership positions in that part of Ghana are now being held by women who are contributing significantly to feeding their families through the aid we have provided as a catalyst,” Mr. Kamara disclosed.

By the end of the project, an estimated 30,000 smallholder farmers have also gained access to monetary support from the various cooperatives for their farming activities.

“Some of the noticeable achievements as part of the project also include training in the use of farming technologies and measures to adopt in tackling climate change.

The FOSTERING project has also established farmer-managed, farmer-owned credit unions, as well as agricultural co-operative enterprises to deliver the tools to farmers in the Eastern Corridor of Northern Ghana.

Founded in 1998, with operations in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the head office in Ghana, SEND West Africa seeks to offer more interventions to better the livelihoods of citizens in the three countries.