Mr Abdul Aziz Nasir, an Agricultural Extension Agent, has advised farmer groups to adopt income generation mechanisms in order to sustain the groups.
He said those mechanism would help the groups to establish income baskets that would strengthen and make them more viable.
He gave the advice during a field monitoring visit to Community Seed Production (CSP) soybean farms at Kpongu and Yeliyiri in the Wa Municipal and Wa West Districts respectively.
He indicated that donors usually support organized groups rather than individuals and that groups stand to benefit donor support when they show financial reliability.
He said the groups could adopt weekly contributions to make the group resilient which could also help them to acquire farm implements.
He advised that when the groups are able to acquire the farm implements, they could be used on their own farms and hired out to some other farmers or groups as additional means of generating income.
He urged the members of the groups to be committed to the ideals and activities of the groups to make them sustainable and viable.
He urged that sanctions in terms of monetary compensations be meted out to members of groups who absent themselves from group meetings without justification.
He said member absenteeism from group meetings thwarts progress and thus, such punitive sanctions would encourage member participation in all group meetings and activities.
Madam Sharifa Dauda, leader of the Kanyirinsuma farmers group of Kpongu, commended the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the implementing agency of the CSP, for supporting the group with logistics, trainings and technologies.
She appealed further for improved technologies and opportunities to be shared with them to increase their productivity and ultimately income levels to improve their livelihoods.
The CSP is an initiative by the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG), a Canadian budgetary support program in Ghana’s agricultural sector.
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