PROJECTS

Capacity Building for Tiger nut Farmers in Aduamoah –Kwahu,Ghana

By working together with communities that take the initiative to try to resolve problems and pool their limited
resources, long-term, sustainable improvements are achieved.
We are committed to helping other rural farming projects, to improve their agricultural practices such as using organic farming methods, intercropping, hedge row management etc.

Tiger nut (Cyperus Esculentus) is an important crop for the people of Aduamoah in the Kwahu South District of Ghana. It contributes to household subsistence and incomes. The area has good farming soil and women are mainly involved in this activity. Poverty and illiteracy are greatest: adult illiteracy in this municipality reaches 70%.This area is almost exclusively women and old people, many of whom do not speak Basic English. The youth have drift to the urban centres to look for greener pastures. Schools in this area have the highest rate of dropout and failures. Absenteeism is high, especially among girls due mainly to poverty and demand for them to support their families. Their lack of knowledge to speak and read Basic English in particular prevented them from adopting new ways of farming, storage, weighing and the importance of coming together as a group or co-operative by selling their products directly in the market, making them dependent on expensive intermediaries.

The people of Aduamoah have low disposable income so some of them can not even afford basic farming tools. Besides they can not afford to hire labour to expand their farm their time of cultivation so they have to rely on their own children and relatives.

Jatropha Africa is engaging with other organizations to develop a strategy for improving the flow of information on best practices in rural finance and relevant training materials to those who have most need of access to this information.   We are keen to promote fair trade and to provide the people of Aduamoah with a platform to enable them to sell their product directly to the world market.