THE TUMU AGRIC PROJECT
ALL-ROUND DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTH OF GHANA
Click pictures to enlarge them
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| All the way in the north of Ghana, near the border with Burkina Faso, lies the town of Tumu, the heart of an area called the Sissala District, after the people who are the majority residents there. |
| In Tumu, more than twenty-five years ago one FIC Brother stationed
there, bro. Guido Wigman, started a small project to help farmers
with wells. Today, a quarter of a century later, what started as
a one man effort to help farmers with wells and ploughs has grown
to a project with six extension staff and a shop selling ploughs,
spare parts, all kinds of farming tools and rubber boots. For half
of its existence it has been sponsored by CEBEMO, Bilance and Cordaid. |
Bro. Guido Wigman
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Here it all started ...
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In those twenty-nine years, its most remarkable success has been the introduction of bullock traction (see picture) in the Sissala District, a technique that was virtually unknown there. Now, it has been adopted in one way or the other by the majority of the farmers in the area and has by all accounts had a tremendous impact on the farming system and the food security in the District. |
| But that is not all the project does. Basically, it helps the local farmers and the population in general with an extensive information programme on all kinds of farming methods, techniques, materials and stock that could be put to use to improve not just farming but the economic situation of the people in general. |
Bullock farming |
| The farmers get environmental education, and they can test for themselves how best to improve soil fertility, whether tree planting would be successful on their land, how to improve their livestock and to care for them better, and what can be planted in the dry season to produce food even in this traditionally lean time of the year. |
| There are also projects specially for the women. And last but not least, as said, there is the shop that sells them the farming tools and implements and the seed stock they want. |
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| A literacy class: reading, writing, arithmatic,
and more ... |
After hard work all receive an AWARD ! |
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| The project shop |
Plows waiting to be sold ... |
| When you talk about soil fertility, you have to know first that what European farmers have done for centuries, using manure to feed the soil, is a technique that was not really known in the north of Ghana. In forested areas slash-and-burn was and is used to clear a field, and the ashes provide some fertiliser. |
| Now, farmers are experimenting with manure, compost and fertiliser to see what works best for them. And a lot of thought is spent on how to avoid the old-time necessity to rotate crops and leave land fallow for twenty years to regain its fertility after several years of hard use. |
Selling their procuce ...
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| After all, with a growing population and more need for agricultural produce, farming land is getting scarce. |
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Extension worker leaving for one
of the villages
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So the extension workers have the biggest job: they go to the
farmers and the villages and they speak about how things are done,
they give advice both on request and unasked. They stimulate people
to take up new things and then regularly go and discuss progress
and new and past experiences. |
| Basically, in each village the project starts with a meeting with the local chief and elders, the village council. There an explanation is given on what the project is for and what it can do for the village people. |
| Then, the next step is a general meeting in the village with everyone who is interested. The explanations are given again, questions are asked, and the extension worker asks who is willing to try new things. |
Meeting near one of the mills
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| Every year, or every other year, general meetings are held for the village to give everyone a chance to join in. Thus, the entire community is involved and one farmer encourages another to duplicate his experiences. |
| The extension workers also run the women’s projects. In the north
of Ghana, women cannot formally own cattle or other animals. So
now that women are starting to run things on their own, new ways
have to be found to accommodate them. Some women own farm animals
in the name of their sons, some start different small projects. |
Plowing with a donkey
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A collective ginding mill
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In one village, a grinding mill was set up that is used mostly
by the women who bring their corn to be ground there.
In many villages, there are literacy projects as schools have only been set up in rural areas in the last ten or fifteen years and many grown women are still illiterate. |
| There are small projects where women can dye cloth to sell, or make cosmetics out of the fruits and seeds they traditionally gather for other purposes, such as the shea nut which is traditionally gathered for cooking fat. The shea nut tree is not grown by men, as it is traditionally part of the women’s domain. |
| Of course, while the extension workers go out to the people, there is also a lot of work in the office and around it. The project has a small piece of land where experimental crops can be tested, there is the shop, there are the books to keep and there is the manager’s office. |
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Bro. Alexis Beleire
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The first manager, if he can be called that, was bro. Guido Wigman
who mostly worked on his own. Later, the project was run by bro.
Alexis Beleire, who was really a manager and who some five years
ago was sent to Malawi to help set up a similar project there. |
| The present manager is bro. Hans van Wouwen, who under bro. Alexis was head of the extension office. |
The present manager in his office
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| Three years ago, the Tumu Agric. Project was joined together with
a similar project in the town of Funsi, a little farther south.
Together, they form TUDRIDEP: Tumu Deanery Rural Integrated Development
Programme, which comes under the responsibility of the Diocese of
Wa.
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Bro. Hans (right)
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Bro. Hans is the man who does most of the external work, preparing
the annual reports for the sponsors, trying to find new sponsors
now that Cordaid is diminishing its input, as well as keeping the
Tumu part of the project going.
Mr James Duma is taking care of the Funsi end of things. With the Funsi station, he also manages a Co-operative Credit Union and a Health Insurance Scheme, both legally separate projects. |
| Together, they now have eleven extension staff, two shops and thus two shopkeepers, and five office staff. They are also regular participants for the TUDRIDEP project in the ACDEP meetings, which form a co-ordination platform for all agricultural and social projects worked by church organisations in the north of Ghana. |
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25 years ceremony,
in the presence
of the bishop of Wa diocese,
other dignitaries
and many other
interested persons.
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a part of the lively Tumu market
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