Dr David Amoah, National Coordinator of Ecumenical Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (ECASARD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has called on development agencies to give more attention to women farmers.
He said women farmers performed critical roles in enhancing food security but were usually marginalised.
Dr Amoah reiterated the importance of small-scale farmers in the development of agriculture and urged development agencies to respond to the plight of women farmers.
Dr Amoah, an agricultural expert, said this at the weekend at a farmers� forum held at Have Jerusalem in the Volta Region.
The forum was organised by the Environmental Development Youth Movement (EDYM) in collaboration with Trees for the Future, a US-based NGO, under the theme: �Voice of the Voiceless, the Farmer Speaks�.
It was to help farmers to identify pertinent challenges facing them in their communities.
Dr Amoah expressed regret that farmers in those communities were faced with problems of soil infertility, low crop yield, inability to access credit facilities, poor roads and access to markets and inadequate inputs and tractor services.
Mr Lovans Owusu-Takyi, Programme Coordinator in Ghana for Trees for the Future, donated wheelbarrows, watering cans and planting tools to the Executive Director of EDYM to support tree planting initiatives in 12 farming communities in the Kpando District.
He said small-scale farmers in the area, especially food crop farmers, were the worst hit with the problem of climate change due to reducing soil fertility, low and irregular rainfall pattern, drying of rivers and
degradation of land.
Mr Owusu-Takyi said the solution to these problems was to plant nitrogen fixing trees that were beneficial to farmers� crops which also
reversed the climate change situation.
He urged the farmers to strengthen their groups, practice revolving credit fund mobilisation to solve their credit problems and devise self-help strategies for their marketing problems.
Mr Owusu-Takyi gave the assurance that Tree for the Future and EDYM would plant 100,000 trees on farms in the district using alley cropping to
improve soil fertility.
He urged the farmers to use the tools to transplant seedlings supplied to them by the Tree for the Future to improve their soil fertility
situation.
The Executive Director of EDYM, Mr Paul Kpai said; �We are concerned about the challenges facing the farmers in the catchments area and has
organised them into groups to build their management and technical capabilities.�
He gave the assurance that EDYM would continue to provide them with the necessary support services and training to improve their farming practices.
Mr Kpai expressed his gratitude to Trees for the Future for the donation and urged the farmers to put it into good use.