Dare Masate is part of SEND-GHANA’s Women in Agriculture Lobby Teams in the Kpandai District of the Northern region of Ghana. She is a proud nominee for the best female yam farmer in the Kpandai District for 2012.
“I owe my success to SEND,” stated Dare, a forty-three-year-old farmer and a mother of seven. Dare is just one of hundreds of women who are becoming successful in agriculture due to SEND-Ghana’s facilitation of engaging marginalized groups with district-level actors.
SEND-GHANA organized capacity building sessions to increase poor people’s access to opportunities and services in SEND-GHANA’s operational districts. Dare took part in the communication and advocacy skills training session organized for the District Citizen’s Monitoring Committee (DCMC) in Kpandai. She gained skills in advocacy at the district level; and engaged the District Agriculture Development Unit (DADU) in Kpandai for support and extension services for her soya beans farm.
“SEND-GHANA gave me information about government policies and opportunities for women farmers and I got motivated to engage the district agriculture officials for support....I was initially tilling one and half acres of soya beans for home consumption.”
In less than two years, Dare expanded her farms and cultivated more than ten acres of soya beans. She then contacted SEND-Ghana Eastern Corridor Livelihood Promotion Programme to help her access a market for her produce. She was linked with Savanna Farmers – a produce marketing company in the Northern Region - which readily assisted her sell her produce. She has scaled up the production of soya beans and has diversified to include yam. She is now able to provide the basic needs and pay the school fees of all her seven children who are at various levels of education.
“Two of my children are at the tertiary level, two are in senior high school, and the remaining three are in the basic level. I now pay all their fees and even have some money to save,” Dare noted.
