Women in Balanta Community in the Jirapa Municipality say they are relieved because they no longer have to migrate to the southern part of the country in search of jobs. About a hundred women now have paid jobs in their own community.
The women have been contracted to plant, water and ensure the growth of plants on a 15 hectare cashew plantation. The project falls under the 60 million Ghana Productive Safety Net Project GPNSP funded by the World Bank.
At a short launch of the project in the Balanta community, the Jirapa Municipal Agriculture Officer, Samuel Oteng Poku urged the community to protect the plants against bush fires and other destructive activities.
80 Municipal and District Assemblies across the country are benefitting from the 60 million Ghana Productive Safety Net Project GPNSP. The project focuses on productive inclusion, labour intensive public work and livelihood empowerment against poverty.
In the Jirapa Community, 100,000 seedlings were raised in the Balanta Community. These seedlings have been transplanted unto two 15-hectare lands at Balanta and Nindor-Waala.
The remaining seedlings are being divided among interested farmers in the Municipality at no cost to them.
Currently, more than two hundred farmers have registered to receive the seedlings.
The Jirapa Municipal Agriculture Officer, Samuel Oteng Poku said the proceeds from the sale of cashew seeds would provide a stream of income for both the community and the individual hired hands on the plantation.
The Assembly Member for the Mwankuri-Balanta Electoral Area was full of praise to the Municipal Assembly for siting the project in the area. He said in a few years, the proceeds from the sale of cashew seeds would be used to solve basic community problems.
The MCE for Jirapa, Christine Bomba-nye Amadu said the Akufo-Addo government is committed to poverty alleviation.
As part of the project, women who have been hired to work on the plantations were given wellington boots, hand shovels and watering cans to make their work easier.
Story filed by Mark Smith.
