Navrongo central NPP women’s organiser empowers 130 women farmers with fertiliser

Ophelia Philomena Aovare, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) women’s organiser in Navrongo Central, has supported 130 women farmers in the area with bags of organic fertilizers to support their farming activities.

Aovare gave the fertilisers to the farmers on Tuesday (1 August) on the premise that empowering women in agriculture, with the needed resources, was crucial to improving their livelihoods and independency.

The 130 bags of organic fertiliser cost GHC14,300.

Speaking to the media during the presentation, Aovare also noted that giving women in agriculture the needed assistance helped to place them in better positions to contribute meaningfully to nation building.

Aovare, therefore, said haven noted the enormous efforts women are making towards the development of the area and being a people-centered person who has always championed the empowerment of women, decided to take action to provide support for them.

She was hopeful that the fertiliser would relieve and enable the women who do not have access to farming inputs especially fertilizer, improve their farming activities for increased yield.  Aovare said increase in yields would translate into improvement in the lives of farmers and their families.

“The women here, most of them are not office workers. They do farm and so in this era and season, there was the need to do something to support them. So, I took it upon myself to mobilize support from our financiers to support them. They rely on that to feed themselves and their families. So, if you can help them with farm inputs during this season, you have done it all for them.”

“This is not about money; it is about what they need. Identifying the needs of the people at a particular period and supporting them. So, with this the women can improve their farm yields and be able to take care of their families,” Aovare said.

Aovare revealed that she was able to pull off the donation successfully with the kind support of Michael Luguje, the director-general of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and some of her friends.

“The main supporter who has made this a reality is Michael Luguje who has been of support to us in the constituency and the region as a whole. I went to him and he gave me more than half of the support. I’m very grateful to him. The others were personal friends who came in to support me.”

While assuring to continue to raise support for the empowerment of women and girls in the area during and after her term of office, Aovare has encouraged the women to be committed to their work and not let the lack of support be a hindrance.

She revealed that she was putting together resources to organize skills training workshops for women and girls in the area.

She further stated that the Akufo-Addo government was working assiduously to improve the support system for farmers in the country. She was, therefore, hopeful that the next year would be a good one for farmers as several policies would be rolled out in the agriculture sector.

“Whatever I can do, I have and will continue to do to support women empowerment in our constituency. Also, with the current policies the government is rolling out, I know that next year things will be better for us [farmers and the citizenry]. Our [NPP] aim is to break the eight, so that the people will see the reason to support us [NPP] to break the eight,”

Some of the farmers, who received the fertilisers, expressed gratitude for the donation describing it as a timely intervention. Naaseh Wemeye, a beneficiary, said the fertiliser will be used on her maize and rice farm which seriously needed application. She was thankful to the Women’s Organizer for her thoughtful initiative.

She said, “In fact, the fertilisers that our women organizer gave to us is good. She has done very well. For now, the economy is very hard and we too don’t have work. We don’t also know how to struggle for fertilizer. So, I was very happy when they told us she is going to distribute fertilizers to us. I have maize and rice and I don’t have fertilizer. I pray for her to get more strength so that next time she will give us more. We are all happy and grateful.”

Reporting by Senyalah Castro in the Upper East Region

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