FarmYield Africa and the Spiritan Dream Centre (SDC) have launched a joint agricultural training and support initiative aimed at empowering female farmers across the Upper East, Upper West, and North East regions.
The initiative has a focus on reducing economic migration and improving rural livelihoods through soybean production.
The programme targets more than 200 women and combines practical agricultural training with input support and field-based learning, as both organisations seek to address barriers such as high input costs, limited access to farmland, and lack of technical skills.
The Executive Director of the Spiritan Dream Centre, Rev. Fr. Atuguba Maxwell, C.S.Sp., said the initiative was driven by concerns over the vulnerability of young women who migrate to southern Ghana in search of work.
“The Spiritans, through the Spiritan Dream Centre, have taken this initiative to empower young women who are usually termed as ‘Kayayei,’” he said. “They migrate to the southern sector to look for greener pastures and, in the process, they are exploited, they contract diseases, and some transition into lifestyles that are unpleasant.”
He said the partnership with FarmYield Africa became necessary due to the financial barriers many women face in agriculture.
“Left on their own, it would have been very difficult for these women to find inputs, implements, and training to cultivate farms of this size,” he added.
For FarmYield Africa, the partnership is part of a broader strategy to use agriculture as a pathway for youth empowerment and economic inclusion.
The Chief Operations Officer of FarmYield Africa, Emmanuel Nsobila, said the initiative goes beyond farming to include skills development and enterprise building.
“We believe agriculture can be a powerful tool to create opportunities for our young girls,” he said. “We are partnering with the Spiritan Dream Centre to train these young women on how to farm soybeans, but it is not only about farming. It is practical skill-set training on how to farm, how to manage, and how to build businesses.”
He added that the goal is to reduce migration pressures by creating viable livelihoods locally.
“These are young girls who would otherwise travel from Bolga or the northern part of Ghana to the south in search of greener pastures,” he said. “We believe we can empower them locally, and that is why we are partnering to support them through farming and agriculture.”
The programme includes training in soybean production, input distribution, and ongoing technical support, with FarmYield Africa agronomists and field officers expected to provide continuous extension services throughout the farming season.