By Konrad Kodjo Djaisi
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched its Reducing Rural Poverty Initiative in April this year, with the clear objective of bettering the livelihoods of rural communities in northern Ghana.
Specific attention was placed on creating opportunities for income and employment opportunity by unleashing the untapped potential of agricultural labourers and farmers who have previously been denied access to rural training programmes.
The Programmatic Regional Initiative (PRI) aims at reducing rural poverty using the cassava value chain as an entry point and promotes, among others the development of efficient, inclusive, equitable and economically viable Farmer Based Organisations.
The PRI has been in the implementing phase for the last eight months now, and has started receiving draft deliverables.
Given the importance of cassava for rural livelihoods in Ghana, employment opportunities and working conditions along the cassava value chain have a significant bearing on the well-being of the country?s rural population.
In 2010, Ghana became the world?s 6th largest producer of cassava; roughly 70 percent of Ghanaian farmers grow cassava either as a primary or secondary crop, highlighting its importance as a source of rural livelihood.
The FAO representative in Ghana, Lamourdia Thiombiano, said the FAO has supported efforts to ensure close linkages with local markets in order to build pathways to sustainable employment generation.
He praised the country?s efforts at poverty reduction but noted that pockets of it remain, especially in northern Ghana which has largely been left behind in the progress achieved in the area of agro-commercialisation and subsequent benefits in terms of employment and wealth-creation.
Mr. Thiombiano said the FAO has been guided by the commitment of government in its focus on reducing poverty through its ambitious agro-commercialisation strategy outlined in the Medium Term Agricultural Strategy Investment Programme (METASIP).
The vision for Ghana?s agriculture sector is embodied in the Country Programming Framework (CPF), a common agreement between the government and the FAO regarding priority areas of programme intervention for agriculture development.
Mr. Thiombiano said the regional initiative contributes to CPF outcomes on rural livelihoods diversification and the generation of decent employment in rural areas, focusing on women and youth.
?Under the initiative, social protection has emerged as an important area for collaboration –with FAO working in partnership with local and national stakeholders to define a set of recommendations for strengthening the linkages between social protection and agriculture,? he stated.
Social protection policies aim to reduce socio-economic risks, vulnerability, extreme poverty and deprivation; while smallholder agriculture policies focus on improving productivity of crops, fisheries, forestry and livestock and access to markets.
Both areas of policy are important elements in poverty reduction strategies, but little attention has been paid to the interaction between them and the implications for design and implementation of related policies and programmes.
