Background and rationale
Farming in Ghana is carried out mainly by smallholders who live in rural areas. These farmers are hardworking and innovative in contributing to food security and better livelihoods. Apart from securing their own food, they produce food for a considerable part of Ghana’s population. Despite their significant contribution to food security, natural resource conservation and economic development, rural people face numerous challenges such as poverty and environmental degradation. Hence, they are constantly seeking creative and better ways to overcome these challenges. The farmers are skilled researchers who rely mostly on their local knowledge and other local resources in the context of their worldviews to better their lives.
Yet local development agents and researchers have not adequately built development interventions on rural peoples’ innovation, using the indigenous production systems and practices as entry point in their efforts to help rural people overcome poverty and develop themselves. Instead, high-external-input technologies are promoted using top-down approaches, but these have largely failed to provide sustainable solutions for smallholders.
In view of these issues, various organisations in Ghana, spearheaded by NGOs, joined the Prolinnova international network in 2003 in order to strengthen and promote sustainable agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) based on the principles of farmer participation, local innovation, indigenous knowledge (IK), endogenous development and the use of local resources. These principles form the development philosophy of church-based development NGOs in northern Ghana since the 1970s: low-external-input and sustainable agriculture (LEISA).
Governance and main partners
Initially, the Prolinnova–Ghana platform was governed by a National Steering Committee (NSC) and carried out by Ghana-South and Ghana-North sub-platforms, coordinated by Ecumenical Association for Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development (ECASARD) and Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP) respectively. Over time, the national coordination and focus of activities shifted to northern Ghana, with ACDEP as the coordinating agency.
Currently, a 7-member management team of the Northern Ghana LEISA Working Group (NGLWG), made up of local representatives from the Ministry of Food & Agriculture (MoFA), the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), the Animal Research Institute (ARI), the ACDEP network of NGOs and the University for Development (UDS), provides overall policy direction and management support to the Ghana platform in the place of an NSC.
Prolinnova–Ghana has implemented both the main Prolinnova activities and the piloting of Local Innovation Support Funds (LISFs) side-by-side since 2008, with the following key partners:
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MoFA (Walewale, Tamale, Bolga, Yendi, Saboba & Chereponi Divisions)
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SARI, ARI, UDS
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Evangelical Presbyterian Development & Relief Agency (EPDRA-Yendi, Saboba & Yendi)
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Presbyterian Agricultural Stations (PAS-Langbensi, PAS-Mile 7)
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Funsi Agricultural Station (TUDRIDEP-Funsi)
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Navrongo-Bolga Catholic Diocese Development Office (NABOCADO)
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Centre for Cosmovision and Indigenous Knowledge (CECIK; COMPAS partner).
Key strategies
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Supporting farmer-led action research and development activities
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Supporting farmers’ innovation development and local practices and documenting and disseminating information about these in appropriate ways
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Building capacities of partners and farmers to promote farmer-led research and development for food security and natural resource management
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Piloting LISFs under the Farmer Assess to Innovation Resources (FAIR) initiative to promote farmer-led experimentation and innovation processes and to enhance the livelihoods of local people
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Upscaling and mainstreaming PID in partners' research and development programmes through policy dialogue, joint experimentation, curriculum development etc
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Net working and strengthening partnership among stakeholders at local, national and international levels.
