EU Praises MOAP-NW for Enhancing Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness

Accra: The European Union (EU) Delegation in Ghana has praised the impact of the Market Oriented Agricultural Programme in North-West Ghana (MOAP-NW) on the livelihoods of beneficiaries through enhanced agricultural productivity and agribusiness.According to Ghana News Agency, the MOAP-NW, a component of the EU Ghana Agricultural Programme (EUGAP), had improved the livelihood of about 83,000 farmers, agribusinesses, and processors in its operational districts through market linkage. Other interventions included the provision of micro-irrigation facilities, inputs revolving funds, matching grants, and training on climate-smart agriculture.The programme, implemented in 14 districts in the Upper West, North East, and Savannah Regions, facilitated the formation of about 600 Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs). It also provided 871 push planters for smallholder farmers, predominantly women, through a cost-sharing approach and established seven micro-irrigation facilities for women.Addressing the m edia at Jonga, a community in the Wa Municipality, during a field visit to some MOAP-NW project sites, Ms. Paulina Rozycka, Head of Infrastructure and Sustainable Development, EU Delegation to Ghana, expressed satisfaction about the programme's impact on the beneficiaries. She stated that the programme had boosted entrepreneurship among the beneficiaries and encouraged ownership of interventions to grow their businesses with the initial support from the programme.Ms. Rozycka mentioned that the EU had long-lasting relations with the government of Ghana and enhancing agriculture was key in that partnership, with MOAP-NW serving as a vehicle to support the agriculture sector in northern Ghana. Ms. Celine Prud'homme Madsen, Agricultural Programme Manager at EU, indicated that the EU was working to improve all sectors of the agricultural value chain to ensure better income for farmers.Talking about the programme's sustainability, she stated that the revolving fund would be managed by the Department of Agricult ure to ensure it continued to serve the needs of farmers in the area. Mr. Harry Blepony, a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Agriculture, acknowledged the impact of the MOAP-NW programme on the livelihood of the beneficiaries, their families, and the agricultural sector in general. He expressed confidence that the programme's impact would be sustained to increase food production to ensure food sufficiency.Some beneficiaries visited were the Duri Farms in Bullenga and Bisikaan solar-powered micro-irrigation scheme in the Wa East District, Wechiau Organic Groundnut Group and Climate-Smart Roller-Roofed Drying Platform in the Wa West District, and Jonga VSLA and Rice Parboiling Group in the Wa Municipality.Mr. Ibrahim Bin Alhassan, the General Manager of Duri Farms, said his farm had benefited from three multi-purpose threshers from MOAP-NW through a cost-sharing approach. He said that had enabled them to increase their production from 250 hectares to over a thousand hectares, reduced the stress in manual t hreshing of their produce, especially soybeans, and increased their smallholder farmers.Madam Basirata Issahaque, a nuclear farmer at Bisikan, also benefited from a solar-powered micro-irrigation facility with a two-hectare-fenced field for all-year-round farming. That enabled her to engage 45 women to cultivate vegetables on that field to earn a living and enhance nutrition.At Jonga, MOAP-NW trained the Tuurosung Women Group on rice parboiling and provided it with parboiling vessels to enhance its rice processing as part of the programme's economic empowerment interventions.