The three year Project, which is aimed at strengthening the innovative   capacity of rural communities particularly rural women farmers to help increase food production and nutrition security is being jointly implemented by the Association of Church Based Development Projects (ACDEP) and the Navrongo –Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Office (NABOCADO) with funding support from the German Government through MISEREOR, a Catholic Organization also in Germany.

Launching the project at Bongo-Soe, the Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Reverend John Manu, said the Multi-Stakeholders approach adopted by the project would help sustain it after external funding stops.

He said formal research; development technologies and interventions had often ignored the creativity and innovations of farmers as well as the values of communities’ local assets and called on Scientists to integrate the innovations and creativity of local farmers into their research to help boost agriculture.

The  National Project Coordinator of  Proli-FaNS , Mr Joseph Nchoh ,  explained that the  Prolinnova-Ghana, an  NGO  affiliated to Prolinnova network ,  a Global NGO,  which is promoting local innovations in ecological- oriented  agriculture and natural resource management  was the lead implementing agency in Ghana.

He mentioned that apart from  the Bongo District in the Upper East Region and the Yendi District in the Northern Region  of Ghana where the project is being implemented,  the   project  was also  being implemented in four other  West  African countries-Burkina Faso, Cameroun , Ethiopia and  Kenyan.

Mr Nchor explained that as part of the project implementation strategies, Multi-Stakeholders platform made up of diverse persons with expertise including the innovators, agriculturalists, producers, processors and marketers had been formed

They will build the capacity of the beneficiaries and also share and learn experiences as well as replicate the good lessons leant at the institutional level to increase food production and improve upon nutrition.

Dr Joseph Ayembilla , the Human Development Coordinator of NABOCADO,  said in spite of the fact the Rural Women farmers contributed  significantly to agriculture production in the country , they  were marginalized when it comes to agricultural support and expressed  the  optimism that the new project would help address some of the gaps.

He said over the years his outfit  had implemented  a number of  projects in the Bongo District using local innovations of  farmers which, he noted, had  led to  most  communities to cope with the  climate change  stress situations thereby leading to the  improvement of food and nutrition security.

“ This is as a result of experiences and useful lessons leant  during the implementation of projects such as the  Participatory Innovations Development, the  Local Innovation Contest  and the ongoing Sustainable Agriculture Practices Programme(SAP) in the area which reached out to 11,485  beneficiaries made up of 8,943 males and 2,542 females in eight communities in the Diocese ,including the Bongo District is part”, Dr Ayembilla disclosed . 

The Paramount Chief of the Bongo traditional area, Naba Baba Salifu Lameyaarum, lauded the efforts of both the funding agency and the implementers of the projects and impressed upon the beneficiary communities to take advantage of the project.