BCI Helps Expand Opportunities for Farmers in Ghana
The North Carolina Arboretum’s Bent Creek Institute visited Ghana in May as part of a project that is working to create jobs for the region’s farmers, increase their income, and expand the region’s capacity to offer sustainable production of indigenous spices, medicinal plants and horticultural crops.
Dr. Joe-Ann McCoy, director of the Bent Creek Germplasm Repository, joined Dr. Jim Simon, Director of the New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program at Rutgers University, on the grant-funded trip. McCoy trained the ASNAPP (Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products) team in seed and plant collection protocols, voucher preparation, and sample preparation along with good agricultural and collection practices.
The team traveled across the country of Ghana for eight days evaluating and collecting native plant populations, visiting farms and greenhouse facilities, and research institutes.
Meetings were successfully arranged with regional researchers from KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology), The Ghana Plant Research Institute, Crops Research Institute, the University of Ghana, Accra, and the Aburi Botanical Gardens in order to discuss plans for expansion of the current project. The North Carolina Arboretum’s Bent Creek Institute (BCI) is a collaborating institution on the “Sustainable Production of Specialty Horticultural Crops in Ghana for Income Generation and Increased Export Value” grant, a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development and directed by Rutgers University.
The project seeks to expand economic opportunities for small-scale farmers in Ghana by enhancing their productivity and deepening market access and participation. The project stresses an innovative market-first, science-based approach with a strong capacity building component for sustainable commercialization that builds upon strong private and public sector partnerships. The one-year grant will enable an expansion of activities to an additional 10 communities in Ghana by supporting 50 farmers to cultivate an additional 40 acres of spices and other non-timber forest products. More than 200 collectors will be trained to collect selected wild harvested medicinal plants sustainably.
Direct jobs will be created for 250 farmers/collectors (100 women and 150 men) and it is anticipated that income of more than $232,000 will be generated. Plans are currently in place to expand the project in 2011. Specific objectives work to:
- Increase production of indigenous spices, medicinal plants and horticultural crops such as Grains of Paradise, Griffonia and Voacanga, which in turn will provide employment and income to selected farmers;
- Implement sustainable collection practices of selected wild harvested non-timber forest products to generate complementary income;
- Increase productivity through applied research, improved quality systems and technology transfer;
- Increase human and enterprise capacities;
- Provide assistance in trade facilitation and market development for regional and export trade.
“As part of The North Carolina Arboretum, BCI’s work is rooted in respect for both regional and global biodiversity,” said the Arboretum’s Executive Director George Briggs. “This project seeks to translate research innovations into environmentally sensitive and sustainable economic advantage – a hallmark of the Arboretum’s work in all sectors,” he said.
Additional collaborating institutions include Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products (ASNAPP) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The ground-breaking work of the BCI and its partners, combined with Western North Carolina’s biodiversity, history and existing culture of natural product and alternative therapies suggests a statewide strategy to position the region as the location for federal research, regulatory and certification programs.
For more information, visit www.bentcreekinstitute.org.