The European Union in partnership with ActionAid is training about 60 women smallholder farmers in extension services in the Nanumba South District of the Northern Region.

The women who are drawn from 20 communities in the district are being trained as volunteers extension service officers to help complement the Agric extension officers in the district.

Nanumba South district has over 60,000 farmer population representing 70% of the population into agric with just 10 agric extension officers.

This is very inadequate as the officers are unable to reach all the farmers in the area in a farming season.

It is in view of this that the European Union with support from ActionAid is training 60 selected female extension volunteers in the district to support the public extension services especially women farmers and their groups.

At an inaugural ceremony, the Nanumba South district Agric officer urged the volunteers to take the training seriously as it would help empower them in the Agric sector.

“Out of the 12 extension officers in the district, there is only one female and looking at the female farmer population in the district, it is important to have female extension volunteers that is going to help us achieve the extension coverage.”

The training is focused on the basic agricultural extension service approaches, basic agronomic practices of selected crops, the role of extension service in climate change adaptation, Climate Resilience Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA) and basics of animal husbandry.

The training is aimed at increasing smallholder women farmers resilience to the impact of climate change through more effective biodiversity preservation and sustainable agricultural practices that contribute to the green economy.

It’s under the Northern Ghana Integrated Development Project (NGIDP) with funding from the European Union supported by ActionAid, treeAid and Orbanet.

Source: citifmonline