Membership of Ghana Youth Guide and a staff of DIB in Denmark, Soren Jakobsen together with his friends visited the Golinga irrigation farm in the Tolon District.
DIB is currently providing technical support to Ghana Youth Guide on its Strengthening Ghanaian Youth Through Climate Smart Agriculture and Civic Organizing project with funding support from Civil Society in Development (CISU), which is a development oriented organization based in Denmark.
So, on Thursday, 28th March, 2024, Soren Jakobsen from DIB and membership of Ghana Youth Guide decided to pay an unannounced visit to the beneficiary farmers of the Strengthening Ghanaian Youth Through Climate Smart Agriculture and Civic Organizing project at Golinga in the Tolon District.
The Ghana Youth Guide team was led by its Executive Director, Chentiwuni Salifu Abdul Fatawu, Field Officer for the Climate Smart Agriculture and Civic Organizing project for Tolon District, Dawuni Peter Augustine and Board Member of Ghana Youth Guide, Alhassan Shaban.
Speaking on the purpose of the visit, the field officer for the Strengthening Ghanaian Youth Through Climate Smart Agriculture and Civic Organizing project, Dawuni Peter Augustine indicated the visit was to enable the DIB staff, Soren Jakobsen to interact with the beneficiary farmers and monitor the progress of the program been implemented in the Tolon District.
In the course of the interaction, some of the farmers said their biggest challenge has to do with the allocation of the farm lands. According to them, the farm lands are only available to them during dry seasons but in the rainy season the owners of the lands take them back to do their farming. ”We don’t own the farm lands, it’s for the chiefs and his elders, we are allowed to farm in the dry season but in the rainy season, they take them back to also farm, so we don’t do all year round farming but only one season which is big challenge to us”. The farmers said.
They also highlighted how the high cost of fertilizer is affecting their farming activities and indicated that the lands are no more fertile and without the application of fertilizer they won’t get a high yield. The farmers further revealed that even the organic manure which is highly recommended by agric officers is very costly and appealed for support from government and NGOs.
In his response to the farmers plight, Soren Jakobsen said the farmers were doing marvelously well and advised them initiate local solutions to their problems. The DIB staff, Soren Jakobsen proposed that the farmers form a cooperative union to enable them tackle some of the challenges facing them before the intervention of any philanthropist.
Prior to the visit, leadership of Ghana Youth Guide and its volunteers held a meeting with Soren Jakobsen and his friends from Denmark.
The meeting offered the Executive Director of Ghana Youth Guide, Chentiwuni Salifu Abdul Fatawu an opportunity to brief the delegation about the organization and the programs it has initiated and implemented for the past fifteen (15) years. Some of the programs highlighted by the Executive Director were High School leadership conference and the Girls Conference.
Others were education on Sexual and Reproductive Health, advocacy against early marriage and Girl Child Education. He also spoke about an upcoming Teach the Child How to Read and Write project by Ghana Youth Guide. This project when implemented will focus on addressing the challenges pupils in rural communities are confronted with reading and writing.
According to him, most children in rural communities are not able to read and write which he believe is a dent on Ghana’s educational system hence, the need to address it to increase the literacy rate in the country. The Executive Director also briefed the delegation on the Strengthening Ghanaian Youth Through Climate Smart Agriculture and Civic Organizing project initiated by Ghana Youth Guide and DIB as its partner with funding support from CISU.
