Farmer experiments Ghana’s agro-tourism prospects

Agro-tourism has the potential to support the sustainable development of Ghanaian local communities.

As a direct expansion of ecotourism, the concept of agro-tourism encourages visitors to experience agricultural life at first hand.  In spite of Ghana’s rich agricultural history, this venture has yet to be fully explored.

A National Best Aquaculture Farmer, Nana Kwaku Siaw however wants to take the lead in exploiting the potentials therein with his agricultural estate.

Trained as an auto-mechanic, Nana Siaw realized early in life that he could earn more income from farming than his job as a Transport Officer in one of Ghana’s leading universities.

He diligently invested part of his monthly salary into what he started as a backyard farm in his parents’ home – producing taro, sugarcane and rearing rabbits.

Nana Siaw later resigned his position at the University in 2000 to venture full-time farming, pursuing his passion in aquaculture, apiculture, small game, livestock and crops production.

Today, his integrated Kumah Farms Complex in Kumasi engages 15 full-time farm hands and several casual laborers.

 

The desire of Nana Siaw is to develop the farm into an agro-tourism centre, with the objective of inspiring students, unemployed and other peasant farmers to run successful agriculture ventures.

“This place is very open to everyone and it can be a place for agro-tourism or eco-tourism, whatever will raise people’s morale to go into agriculture; that is what I want to do”, he said.

Born in 1972, Nana Kwaku Siaw was introduced to farming by his grandmother at the age of eleven, whilst in primary school.

But he was not interested in subsistent farming – rather to establish what he described as an ‘agricultural empire’.

Aware of challenges in accessing credit for farming, Nana was determined to save, believing that planning to save and invest is critical to build capital resource for a start-up agriculturist.

“There is no excuse to complain of lack of access to credit. Start small like raising seedlings, seek advice and invest your time and energy till harvest”, he says.

Today, he is fulfilled to be among few people in Ghana pursuing aquaculture as an alternative source of animal protein to meet the consumption needs of the population.

Nana Siaw’s success as an agricultural entrepreneur has earned him the prestigious National Best Aquaculture Farmer award, in addition to several other honours.

He describes agriculture as a productive activity which needs no knocking for vacancy, but a sector with opportunities to reap bountiful through patience and focus to achieve set goals.

He however acknowledged challenges with unstable product pricing due to poor marketing systems and access to storage facilities could be frustrating.

Training in agriculture, he noted, is key for new agriculturists to learn from mistakes and proceed to succeed.

This is what he intends to achieve when his farm becomes a centre of agricultural learning and leisure.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

Conference to reveal links between conservation and land grabs

The leasing or buying of farmland by foreign governments and private investors has been described as 'land grabbing'.

There are serious concerns about the threat to smallholder farmers and the environmental impact of intensive agricultural production. But such grabs could also work to the advantage of developing countries, as a valuable source of investment

Researchers will meet at London Zoo on 26-27 March to join the dots between large land deals, conservation, land rights and efforts to tackle poverty in poor communities worldwide.

Speakers will present research on both impacts of land grabs on conservation and its reverse – the role of conservation as a driver of land grabs. They will also share studies that show how stronger land rights can improve conservation outcomes.

The issues are burning because worldwide large land deals are on the increase, and they often take place in areas that are home to both large numbers of poor people and important biodiversity. People and wildlife can lose out when investors acquire land for large scale agriculture.

At the same time, there are growing threats from ‘green grabs’ that displace communities in order to conserve wildlife or gain value from eco-tourism, biofuels or the carbon that forests store in their wood.

The meeting in London—organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development, the International Land Coalition, the Zoological Society of London and Maliasili Initiatives — is the international symposium of the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group.

Speakers will present case studies from Cameroon, Uganda, Chile, Kenya, Mongolia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Liberia and Cambodia.

“The global rush for land threatens to squeeze out both poor communities with weak land rights, and wild species and habitats that we should be conserving,” says Dilys Roe, a senior researcher at IIED, which convenes the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group. “It is in the interests of both the conservation and land rights communities to tackle the land rush. One solution is for them to work more strategically together to secure or strengthen local land rights in ways that bring both conservation and development benefits.”

“Secure land tenure is a foundation of community-driven conservation efforts around the world,” says Fred Nelson, Executive Director of Maliasili Initiatives, which supports sustainable natural resource management efforts in Africa. “The current land crisis provides an opportunity for conservation, development, and human rights groups to work together to address historically-rooted weaknesses in the recognition of local communities’ land rights, and to enable communities to better secure their territories and the natural resources on which their livelihoods depend.”

The Poverty and Conservation Learning Group (PCLG) is a multi-stakeholder forum, coordinated by IIED, for promoting dialogue and fostering learning on the links between biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction.