Women into Baobab and Shea Nuts Poised to Increase Production

Women groups engaged in Baobab and Shea nut processing have met in Paga in the Kassena-Nankana West District to discuss ways to overcome production challenges to increase output and returns.

They considered major market trends such as pricing, weighing, transport and field support.

Dubbed 'KANBAOCU General Assembly Meeting', it was facilitated by the Organization for Indigenous Initiatives and Sustainability (ORGIIS-Ghana) and brought together stakeholders from the Kassena-Nankana West and East, Builsa North and South and the Nahuri Province in Burkina Faso.

Mr Julius Awaregye, the Executive Director of ORGIIS-Ghana, said the goal was to build the capacity of the women in areas of agro-processing, value chain and to link them up to marketing sources to make good sales.

He added that the Organization had been doing this with funding support from SNV - a Netherlands Base Organization, Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and the Joint Action for Farmers' Organisations in West Africa (JAFOWA.

Majority of the women, he said, 'have been empowered to go into boabab powder, juice and oil for sale in the local and the international markets'.

Mr Awaregye pointed out that greater percentage of those who had gone through the capacity building training had developed their entrepreneurial skills in shea-butter and baobab processing and seen significant rise in their earning.

The 'General Assembly Meeting' was to create a platform for the group to plan strategically to increase their output, raise the quality of their products to meet the international market demands and to also negotiate for better pricing.

ORGIIS-Ghana has over the past eight years been working with 416 women groups with a combined population of 11,000 spread across the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West Regions and the Nahuru Province of Burkina Faso in the areas of non-timber products.

---GNA