Monday to Thursday of every week I travel to a different village to meet with a farmer group. All four groups have spent our last 7 meetings learning how to plan their farming activities to make the most profit possible through a program called Agriculture As A Business (AAB) that was created by EWB and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). This week, all four of the groups finished the AAB program and I am so proud of their accomplishments I just have to share them with you!
Monday is Esunga Farmer Group in Mandari, a village 5 kilometers from the Black Volta and Cote D’Ivoire border. The AAB program has helped Esunga plan their 5-acre rice farm. The group will likely get a loan from the central government to cover the cost of inputs (about CAD $1000). After expenses, they expect to earn a profit of $830 but don’t know the interest rate on the loan so that could not be factored in. Typical interest rates for farmers range from 15% from internationally supported banks to 35% and more from local institutions. The banks justify the high interest because of the tragically low repayment rates. In an average situation, Esunga will walk away with about $600. But the group knows loans from the government typically show up late, if at all, so they have a contingency to plant only 2 acres and pay for the cost of inputs with their bi-weekly contributions and group labour. 
Tuesday is Nyorpeo Farmer Group in Jama. Nyorpeo is scaling-up their 4-acre maize farm to 8-acres this year and are paying for the scale-up with money they earned selling sheep to be slaughtered for Eid Al Adha. Their MoFA Agricultural Extension Agent (AEA), Ditcha, encouraged them to wait to sell until Eid when prices would be highest and the group earned an average of $100 per animal – a huge sum by Ghanaian standards. They expect to earn a profit of $1250 from their maize next year.
Wednesday I meet with Nuoriyeni Farmer Group in Seripe. This group has no start-up capital but wants to sow 2 acres of peanuts. The costs of the inputs is about $400 but they plan to do all the labour (ploughing, planting, weeding, harvesting, drying) themselves so they only need to come up with $75 to pay for seeds. They have devised a plan to get the money in time for planting which sees the members making 75 cent contributions every two weeks and working on other people’s farms to make up the balance. They expect to make $320.
And Thursday I meet with Awuladese Farmer Group in Bole. This group has an unpaid loan from 2006 with the Agriculture Development Bank but, thanks to encouragement from their AEA, Eugene, they are now starting to pay off the remaining $275 they owe. When they do, they will be able to get another loan from this forgiving bank at a 15% interest rate (thanks to IFAD) and will use this money to plant 20 acres of peanuts. Their expected profit is $2000, even after including the interest. That being said, they know there is always a chance they won’t get the expected loan so they have a contingency plan. Each member will contribute 37 cents per week to cover the costs of planting just 2 acres of peanuts which will earn them about $350.
$600, $1250, $320, $2000/$350 for one year of farming. They are insignificant sums to a Canadian audience but to a Ghanaian farmer, who usually just produces enough to live on through individual subsistence farms, this money means that they have a tiny bit to line their pockets if bad luck befalls them.
And while getting farmers to keep records, plan ways to market their goods and think about costs and benefits probably seems a bit immaterial to a Canadian audience, believe me, these are HUGE steps forward. Most of the farmers I work with have never gone to school, and those that have are still illiterate. Most of the groups were haphazardly thrown together by MoFA to get NGO agricultural projects into the district. And most of the groups struggled to make a profit from their group activities or had simply abandoned their group work all together.
Two months of Agriculture As a Business training later, illiterate farmers are now keeping records with creative uses of stones, beans, marks on the wall, etc. which means they are much less likely to get cheated; the quietest members feel important enough to contribute to group discussions and decision making; and groups know they are powerful enough to negotiate fair prices with buyers and make a profit they are happy with. These are all small steps that form the foundation of huge change in the lives of the farmers I have had the pleasure of getting to know.
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