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ZOVFA
ZOVFA is an exceptional programme which brings tangible and long-term benefits to its members. It shows that community ownership, participation and support must underpin all development activities if they are to be sustainable solutions to addressing community needs.
"Mobilising the community is necessary if any development activities are to be successful, sustainable and importantly if the benefits are to be shared"
Philip Ayamba, ZOVFA Voluntary Co-ordinator.
ZuuriOrganic Vegetable Farmers’ Association (ZOVFA), northern Ghana
Beginnings
ZOVFA is based in the village of Zuuri in the Binduri District, Upper East region of Northern Ghana, an area of semi-arid savannah. The majority of people are subsistence farmers who earn their living from rainy season crop production, dry season vegetable gardening, small livestock and poultry raising.
African Initiatives has been working with ZOVFA for more than 12 years to improve the livelihoods of small farmers, whose earnings and living standards are kept at the poverty level by:
- Fragile soils becoming rapidly infertile, largely due to an intensification of agriculture, for example mono-cropping and chemical fertilizers. The situation reached a crisis point for many farmers in recent years, when they found they could no longer afford the increasingly expensive agro-chemicals on which they had come to depend.
- Credit rarely being available to subsistence farmers. Due to high inflation rates and, in response to pressure from rich country governments, the loss of government financial support, the cost of even the most basic tools is often beyond the reach of most farmers. A lack of access to credit is also preventing efforts to set-up alternative income generating activities.
- Having only one marked rainy season in the year means that farmers are largely reliant on the sale of wet season's crops to provide income for their families in the dry season. In this process farmers are also vulnerable to exploitative urban traders or middle-men who come to village at harvest time when there is a glut of food and prices are low. Farmers can usually not afford transportation to more distant markets where they would get better price.
Community Mobilisation and Membership
ZOVFA was started in 1993 by a group of proactive men and women farmers looking for ways to tackle their poverty and improve their standards of living. Since its foundation, ZOVFA has grown into supporting 12 groups of farmers - with an average of 27 individual members in each group, just over half of whom are women - there are over 3,500 direct beneficiaries of the project.
Community cohesion and commitment is ZOVFA's strength and hallmark:
There are clear criteria for membership. Future members do not receive external resources from ZOVFA for the first year, only training and advice. Attendance and participation at workshops and group work activities are monitored and financial inputs from ZOVFA always have to be matched with group contribution.
Activities and Successes
Training
Training and assistance is given by volunteers to members on organic and indigenous farming techniques, water and soil conservation, livestock production, tree planting and protection, and post-harvest management. Dry season organic farming techniques are being used, which allow household members to generate 4 times more income from dry season gardening than from rain fed crop farming.
Credit Schemes
Loan and Credit Scheme for tools and farming inputs (seeds, chicken netting, animal traction) provide crucial support to poor farmers, helping them to get their production up.
A Women's Credit Fund, combined with training and support allows women to set-up their own income generating activities, such as the production of pinto beer and sheer nut butter. Repayments rates are over 92% and women can now contribute additional income to the family budget and are less dependent on their husbands.
Cooperative Marketing
