What happens when a whole community takes on a school farm project, with the local chief and community leaders involved! The results are amazing!
It all started when the Adoe Basic School located in the Nkoranza-North District of the Bono East Region heard about the competition from their district educational office and decided to be a part of it. The local chief supported the initiative by providing land for the cultivation and coordinated community work to prepare the land ready for the project. After growing vegetables on the land, they were able to use the proceeds from the sales to purchase items from the school.
Through the school’s participation in the school farm competition, they have been able to win Computers for their School’s ICT Lab, emerging as Best School of the Year JHS Category twice for 2022 and in 2023. This award is helping to provide ICT Education to children in this community. Before then, the school did not have any computers and ICT training was a challenge.
The school farm program implementation across many parts of Ghana has helped to change the mindset of the students about agriculture. Before the program started, most students were not willing to go into agriculture, now they see that there are opportunities for job creation within the agricultural sector. Through the training received, children have been able to share the knowledge gained about the various plants they are producing with their parents. In turn, this knowledge transfer has helped parents in the communities to start horticulture, to supplement the household income and livelihoods. The female students taking part in the program have increased from 35 to 50.
In 2023, Hellen Offeibea Annor from Adoe School took part in the competition and won the Best Female Student for JHS Category. Speaking about her experience at the event, she said: “The School Farm Competition has really helped to change my perception about agriculture. Before, I thought agriculture was for uneducated people, but now I know that anyone can take part in agriculture. When I grow up, I want to become a lawyer, but I want to incorporate my love for agriculture also. So while having my farm, I will also use my love and knowledge in the agricultural sector to help with laws and legislation that promotes trading in agricultural goods. I am very excited about the school farm competition. It has really taught me a lot.”
Through the school farm competition, KIC has trained over 50,000 young people on horticultural and other practices such as land preparation, nursing seedlings, transplanting, application of pesticides as well as harvesting, post-harvest and marketing. Through this program, KIC working together with the Mastercard Foundation aims to change mindsets about agriculture.