Help Provide School Meals for 5000 Children

This year, we had a bumper harvest from our farm in Mawuli School in the Volta region of Ghana. This is due to the hard work and commitment of our partner school, Mawuli School and volunteer students who stayed committed to the goals of the School Farms Program.

On the 11^th of September 2018, we welcomed GlobalGiving staff, Emma & Heather to our Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement (ROFLM) office in Ho, Volta region. As part of GlobalGiving's Evaluation Program, our organization has been selected to gain further understanding of GlobalGiving's vision and how to leverage GlobalGiving to raise funds for our project.

Here is our harvest from our school farm in Mawuli School. We harvested beetroot. Beetroot is the taproot portion of the beet plant. Beetroot is a good source of iron and folate(naturally occurring folic acid). It also contains nitrates, betaine, magnesium and other antioxidants (notably betacyanin). More recent health claims suggest beetroot can help lower blood pressure, boost exercise performance and prevent dementia.

On the 30^th of August 2018, we harvested these cabbages from our school farm. These were cultivated by our students in Mawuli School.

 A few months ago, we cultivated carrot, cabbage and beetroot and now the cabbage is ready for harvest. Thanks to all those who helped during the volunteerism to work on the farm and in cultivating these crops.

On the 4^Th of August 2018, we called for community members to volunteer time to work on Mawuli School Farm as part of our Community Volunteer Day event.

When schools are on vacation, we depend on community members for labour on our farms through our Community Volunteer Day event. Ten (10) community members responded to our call and participated fully. We are grateful for their selfless support. These volunteers are our community builders. We are proud of their commitment.

International Youth Day Event:

On 12^th of August 2018, marked the 19th United Nations International Youth Day Celebration and the year’s theme was dubbed “safe spaces for the youth”. We used the day to drive home the core message of our project that the youth is a great resource to the development of any nation and it is important to celebrate, appreciate and use this day to call for safe spaces for their development.

We reiterate the need to create safe spaces where they can come together to engage effectively in activities related to their diverse interests and participate in decision-making processes for their growth and development. At school farms, we do not only produce supplementary food crops for school meals but we also use our school farms as safe spaces for experiential learning for agriculture entrepreneurial skills development.

From 20 -21 August 2018, 100s of policymakers, development partners, youth leaders, private sector players, women and youth organizations, civil society organizations, research and academia will gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, for what seems to be FAO’s biggest regional conference on Youth Employment in Agriculture as a Solid Solution to Ending Hunger and Poverty in Africa: Engaging through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Entrepreneurship. Our founder, Alfred Godwin Adjabeng was invited by the Food and Agriculture Organization to participate in this all-important conference.

Sokode Senior High Technical and Tanyigbe Senior High Schools were cofounded by Donors on GlobalGiving, US Embassy in Ghana and Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement to grow organic staple crops, vegetables and fruits. The school farms provided a space for experiential learning for agriculture entrepreneurial skills acquisition through our Agriculture Skills Development Program for rural young people.

Our project received the support of Sokode and Tanyigbe traditional councils, who supported with the provisioning of land. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture-Ho Municipal provided technical and extension service for the project. A local Non-governmental organization, Associates for Rural Sustainable Development (ASRuD) and Agriseed, a local seed and agriculture input company also provided various support ranging from advisory to subsidize seed supply for the project.

We cultivated organic vegetable (Cabbage, lettuce, Gboma, okra and garden egg), staple crops (Cassava, maize and cowpea), and some fruits (Watermelon and pawpaw). The school farm is also used as experiential learning space for knowledge and skills acquisition.

School Farms project is implemented by Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement (ROFLM) with the assistance of local public & private stakeholders and the local community in which the project is been implemented.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture-Ho Municipal provides technical and extension service for the project. Associates for Rural Sustainable Development (ASRuD), a local Non-governmental organization provided technical expertise and Agriseed, a local agriculture input company also provided various support ranging from advisory to subsidize seed supply for the project. The two communities (Tanyigbe and Sokode) provide land for the project. The project was co-monitored and evaluated by all the stakeholders.

Project Progress Update:

On the 19^th of November, 2017, the Paramount Chief of Sokode Traditional Area, Togbe Fia Korku III released 10 acres of land close to a river source for Sokode Senior High Technical School's irrigated school farm project.

On the 15^th of December, 2017, we began our vegetable nursery with support from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture Extension unit at the Ho Municipal office and Associate for Sustainable Rural Development (ASRuD).

On the 17^th of January, 2018 drip irrigation technologies were set up on the project site. Students of Sokode Senior High Technical School were engaged for the purpose of skills acquisition.

On the 19^th of January, 2018, we welcomed students from Sokode Senior High School to our nursery site to witness the progress of seedlings and learn the culture practices associated to the stage of production. Together with the students, we performed tinning out, removal of weeds, watering and preparation of field for transplanting. These activities where performed hands-on by students with technical guidelines from our partners.

On the 23^rd of January, 2018, our student volunteers were engaged to transplant seedlings (cabbage, lettuce, garden egg, green pepper, gboma) to its permanent site. We planted okra and carrot. It's 100 per cent organic farm.

On the 15^th of March, 2018, we Had our first harvest from our Sokode Senior High Technical School-school farm. We harvested organic Solanum macrocarpon (African eggplant also called Gboma).

Challenges and Lesson Learned:

The project is progressing steadily. The 50 per cent of produce from the farm has been used as a complementary food crop for school meals. Due to the demand for constant monitoring and most importantly, management of the farm, our limited staff is unable to do this efficiently.

The project is yet to kick start in Tanyigbe Senior High School in the first week of June. We could not run this two projects at different locations simultaneously. Due to the high demand for our project, we are in the process of developing School Farms Model toolkit that will be used by schools to develop their our school farms.

Links:

• School Farms Facebook Page