CONTEXT AND CHALLENGES
The untapped economic potential of the cashew, peanut and vegetable sector
The cashew, peanut and vegetable value chains offer great, yet untapped employment opportunities in Ghana, especially within the Eastern, Bono and Upper West Region. To tap this economic potential and attract private investments, products have got to meet certain organic standards to become competitive on the market. However, many cashew, peanut and vegetable producers do not have the knowledge or the capacity to produce sustainably and meet such standards, yet.
With support of Invest for Jobs the start-up company So-B-Green Limited is addressing this investment barrier with a comprehensive project approach. Farmers are trained to produce sustainably, meet organic standards and improve yields and quality. At the same time supply chains are shortened as So-B-Green provides the cashew, peanut and vegetable producers with a guaranteed market for their organic produce at competitive prices.
PROJECT APPROACH AND PROJECT GOALS
Organic farming as the key to increased production
Through the public-private partnership, cashew, peanut and vegetable producers are provided with the technical guidelines to produce sustainably and are trained to adopt organic production principles. To put these lessons into practice, they receive the necessary organic seeds, tanks, irrigation systems and other items. That enables them to improve yields and quality because demand for organic products is higher than for what they used to produce with conventional techniques, farmers can now be sure of a ready market and must no longer fear the challenging post-harvest losses, when the market’s demand used to not match their supply.
On the investor’s side, prior to the project’s implementation, non-organic production had been identified as an investment barrier for both European and local firms interested to invest in the Ghanaian market. While farmers are trained in sustainable production, buying processes are improved by facilitating direct sourcing through established collection centers and making product traceability easier through a user-friendly app. The multi-purpose app allows easy registering and field mapping for farmers, provides them with learning material on organic production and enables buyers to trace products up to its farm of origin and even field.
With its leading role and continuous effort to drive a more profitable organic cashew and vegetable production, So-B-Green Limited is our strategic project partner. Over the course of the project, together with So-B-Green we aim to achieve the following:
- Train 1000 farmers on topics of organic cashew farming, bee keeping and vegetable production
- Improve working conditions for 600 farmers
- Create at least 160 new jobs at So-B-Green
STATUS AND OUTLOOK
New jobs and improved working conditions
As of September 2021, more than 217 cashew, peanut and vegetables farmers were trained on organic production. By now, they have started producing organically and expanding their businesses. Some were able to increase sales, produce more and hire people on their farms. Others were able to diversify their farms by, for example, adding beekeeping to their traditional cashew business. To realize the project, a private sector contribution of 76,031.43 Euros has been mobilised for procurement of equipment, construction of nursery, certification and other project management costs.
Further, it is planned to create three cooperatives – one in each of the supply chains: cashew, peanut and vegetables. By now, one cooperative is officially registered and raring to go.
Beyond that, the project is attracting the attention of many surrounding farmers. Especially the number of women who want to join the project is increasing.
To implement this project, SO-B-GREEN Limited is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in the context of Invest for Jobs on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
