Sefwi-Wiawso (WNR),- A total of twenty-six disabled farmers made up of eight females and 18 males in the Sefwi-Wiawso Municipality received support from the EU funded ReDIAL Project.
The ReDIAL Project is supporting them in Mempeasem in Sefwi Wiawso municipality with free grain threshing services.
Project Manager of Friends of the Nation, Mr.Kyei Kwadwo Yamoah who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in Takoradi said it would motivate farmers who were into cereals and grains.
One of the beneficiaries, Madam Edith Tornyie, a-50-year old PWD farmer in Sefwi Mempeasem, said she had been farming since 1990.
Madam Edith Tornyie said she cultivated maize, cassava, beans and cocoa and harvested a minimum of 10 bags of maize and four bags of beans in each of the two cropping seasons in a year despite the numerous challenges confronting her farming activities
According to her, the challenge with the threshing services was the major problem for them because they used their hands and sticks to do their threshing which demanded high labour and also resulted in the loss of some grains and cereals.
Ms. Tornyie said she was motivated with the EU funded ReDIAL project to do more since it helped to address the problems of marginalized farmers.
The disabled farmer further stated that with the threshing machine, “am able to obtain seven bags of 100kg maize in one cropping season so the end result from the threshing is excellent with no post- harvest losses of grains, no labour cost and also I obtain more yield than the previous years, so Redial project has encouraged me and I will expand my farm size next year”.
The Research for Development and Innovation Agriculture and Learning (ReDIAL Project) is an European Union (EU) four-year funded project in Ghana fostering innovation in improving soil fertility and innovative technology to improve threshing of grains and cereals.
The project is being implemented by a consortium of three partners consisting of Friends of the Nation (FoN) the lead, Tropenbos Ghana (TBG) and the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (FRNR KNUST) and two private partners: SESI and SAYeTech companies.
Source: Ghana News Agency