Stakeholders in the agricultural sector have criticised the government’s Feed Ghana policy, calling for urgent reforms to make it more gender-responsive and inclusive.
As the farming season approaches, ActionAid Ghana, through a research team, conducted an assessment of the Feed Ghana programme to determine whether it is gender-transformative.
Speaking at its “Harvesting Resilience” programme on the theme “Women Farmers, Agroecology and Agricultural Policy Accountability” in Tamale, the Women’s Rights and Advocacy Manager at ActionAid, Eugenia Ayishetu Ayagiba, called for a review of the policy to ensure it better targets women farmers, who make up a significant portion of the farming population.
She noted that agricultural inputs under the Feed Ghana initiative are not adequately reaching poor women farmers in remote communities, stressing the need for policymakers to make the programme more inclusive to benefit subsistence farmers.
“The fact that the government is aware of the needs of women in the farming sector, in the agricultural sector, is a plus. But what we are saying is, can we make it more inclusive? Can we ensure that some of the things that are being promoted are tied to budget, so that we know that we are able to actually monitor and ensure that women are going to benefit from it.
“So it’s up to us now to monitor and see how it’s going to be done so that we are able to actually tell you where the programme has failed.
“I wouldn’t say it has failed. I think it’s up to policy makers to go back to the table and take on some of the recommendations we are putting out to make it stronger and ensure that it benefits women,” she said.
In an interview, researcher Prof. Abazaami Joseph, Department Director at the Institute for Development Research, University for Development Studies (UDS), said sustainable agricultural development requires policymakers to recognise the central role of women in farming and reflect that in policy design.
He also presented key findings and recommendations from the research.
