Asking Different Questions

Oct. 19, 2011

I arrived in Ghana in August 2010 meaning I’ve now been here for over 14 months. As you know I had been working with the Governance & Rural Infrastructure (G&RI) team and my contract was slated to end in May 2012. However, back in February I made the decision to switch teams in August 2011 finishing a one year placement with the G&RI team and starting a new 1 year placement with EWB’s Agriculture Value Chains (AVC) team.

The new team: From back left - David, Ben, Mark, Me, Lauren, Mike, Lyndsey

I want to explain the reason for the switch in work focus, and some of what I’m doing now. Ever since my time in Zambia I’ve been fascinated by the opportunities that agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa can bring to poverty alleviation. The majority of Zambians and Ghanaians are farmers whether it be small-scale subsistence, semi-commercial, or fully commercial; agriculture intersects every dimension of someone’s life here. As such, it is the most promising industry to develop to lead the country’s economic growth. I have a very strong passion for seeing small-scale farmers benefit from the land they till, subsequently reaching their maximum potential, sending their kids to school, and dreaming of a less volatile future. Furthermore, I also love being in the field, under the often scorching African sun, at the village level interacting directly with the people that I came here in the first place to help.

I found that my placement with the G&RI program was not serving these passions and interests, and I realized that if I were to be successful in creating positive impact on the lives of poor Ghanaians I would need to be working in a sector that I was passionate about. The AVC team provides the opportunity to not only impact the lives of small-scale farmers, but it also takes a private sector led approach to poverty reduction. I’ve always believed that the private sector in Africa holds the greatest opportunity for mass poverty reduction. And everywhere around me in Ghana I see business opportunities that can provide steady employment giving Ghanaians the freedom to choose what their livelihood will be.

My placement with the AVC team started in August with a preliminary research partnership with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI). I was to determine the effects that agricultural demonstration plots in rural communities were having on farmer behavior change. These “demo’s” were being used to promote good agricultural practices (GAPs), and Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) as part of the AGRA funded Soil Health Project. In a later post, I will share my major findings.

EWB has decided to continue the partnership with SARI, and I am now working on strategies the soil health project can take to engage the private sector to create sustained farmer behavior change. For example, the project works with a start-up producing organic fertilizer. The results of this fertilizer in demo plots has been very posited often producing better yields than chemical fertilizer, while also actually improving long-term soil health, not to mention being environmentally sustainable. As such, farmers are very interested in this technology but unfortunately it is not readily accessible. The SHP is now asking the question what happens after demonstration plots? Essentially, once interest for new technologies is created, how are markets than developed for them? I am here to try to help the project develop a strategy for private sector engagement.

I’m in a different environment than a government planning office, with different opportunities in front of me, and different questions to dive into. And I’m loving it. In the coming weeks I’ll share more about my research into farmer behavior change and technology adoption, in addition to some hypotheses I’m testing, and some agribusiness opportunities I’m seeing in Ghana.

Take care!