Agriculture and Food Security

In Ghana, more than 60 percent of women are employed in agriculture, yet their potential as farmers and entrepreneurs is often limited due to gender inequalities, reduced access to farming inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, and little or no access to finance.

The dream of socio–economic empowerment of women will not be complete without empowering those who are living at Ghana’s last periphery.  The ones whose day starts before sunrise and continues after sunset. These are the women farmers of Ghana, whose voices often go unheard owing to their gender, and who struggle to establish their identity at a grassroots level due to patriarchal traditions and gender socialization. Women’s work in agriculture is in addition to her role as a wife, a daughter-in-law and as a mother. However, gender based discrimination continues in multiple ways: women are not recognized as farmers in Ghana policies thereby denying them of institutional supports of the bank, insurance, cooperatives, and government departments.

Despite women being the largest contributors to the agricultural sector in Ghana, they are often excluded from decision-making within their households and communities. The potential economic gains from reducing gender gaps in agriculture can translate into significant poverty reduction and improved nutritional benefits for rural women and their families.

LiWA works to close the gender gap in agriculture and create lasting change for female farmers in rural communities. We work at two levels to address this discrimination: at the government level, LiWA helps ensure that policies promote gender equality; at the individual level, LiWA empowers women with entrepreneurial and business planning skills to make them more independent and capable of participating in the local economy.

LiWA has been at the forefront of gender equality in rural communities in Ghana, with a focus on transformative and long-lasting results. Our programs and projects are inclusive and results-oriented. We support women to overcome the challenges they face and access the tools and opportunities they need to improve their lives. We help rural women grow more food, connect to markets, increase their incomes, mobilize them into self-help groups where they can build business skills, participate in savings and loan programs, and gain confidence to enter profitable agricultural value chains and have a meaningful voice in their communities.

We provide rural women training in improved farming and water conservation techniques; post-harvest processing, making affordable processing equipment available, and connecting women to credit facilities and markets. We train young women and help them set up agribusiness ventures.

We also engage boys and men in education and discussions geared toward achieving greater gender equality, focused on redefining notions of masculinity and the sharing of household responsibilities.