Innovative farming to empower and to preserve our environment
African Youth Employment Initiatives AYEI
(
Non-governmental organization (NGO)
)
#SDGAction33801
Description
To be more effective, farming has to be linked to modern technology and solve some thorny issues the world is facing, namely climate change, lack of employment, and COVID 19 pandemic. We adopted a fish farming that utilizes less land size, yet produce well in an environment preserving manner, whereby we empower the marginalized in rural Ghana to farm fish using an aquaponics system, a technology that enables one to have a fully functional fish pond in the backyard of their homes, making it possible for them to stay home and work to earn…what has been proven effective to increase the income of people while staying healthy at home, a practice that won us an award from the government this year.
The project was designed by our organization, putting in place all mechanisms possible that could ensure its successful implementation. It was submitted as a proposal where it was the second to be selected together with 18 others out of 295 that applied through the AU-IBAR office. The team was made of technical partners from government research institutions, social ventures, startups, and businesses who were assigned roles to perform. A joint team from both the funders and project owners conducted monitoring and evaluation and still ensure that all closes successfully The main activities were installing an energy and water supply system, design of an aquaponics based food system that produced fish and vegetables, training beneficiaries both onsite and physical and introducing them to post-harvest periods whereby the ICT tools were introduced to complement the exercise The technology was assessed by government authority who decided to make it an exemplary model by giving the award to the organization for having demonstrated this new innovation, a practice that solves many issues at the same time
Significant t outcome of the project were: out of trained 120 young people, out of whom 70 were women, some of them have started practicing this model on their own. We have given jobs to as many as 12 individuals in less than a year; we have come up with products being sold at the markets, whereby people are earning income on a daily basis while they continue eating healthy. This practice has contributed to SDG 1, and 2 whereby food was made available while trying to solve poverty issues among the marginalized people who, if not our project, would not have made it. We have seen many people contacting us to help them install our model and we have been able to establish about 3 farms belonging to individuals and to organizations. The positive impact was hailed by the government who supported the initiative This practice is likely to lead to a new way of farming, an innovation that will continue to be a learning hub and continuous research areas for academic purposes.
This project was enabled by funds given by African Union; it was made possible by the local leaders, who gave us land, was made possible by the traditional leaders who gave us support by making available some resources such as training facilities etc our partners, helped us by making available the technology , trainers and experts Our staff was working to ensure all was done as designed Issues we encountered were interruption in funds disbursement that was due to covid 19 and also the limited travel facilities. If all was great, we would have been able to expand our facilities
To increase its visibility, we have created a digital platform that can be utilized to learn and practice it anywhere anyone is. It is a self-teaching model we designed to be adopted by anyone. We are making the techniques available and accessible to everyone. We intend to replicate it where the means permit it and we plan to bring this to 7 African countries this model is self-sustained as even after harvest we can restart all over and for many years.
Covid 19 has affected us as we had planned to much more outreach programs to train more people both in Ghana and elsewhere. We decided to rather come up with online training whereby people can be reached or reach us via digital means and the training could equally be done, this was to make sure people stay at home, farm, earn and sell and have money sent to them without many movements This system can be utilized to help people go back to business while living the era of covid 19 as we can farm with less contact with others, we can sell without visiting markets, we can buy without going out, we can have our products delivered to us So it can help both farmers and consumers to stay healthy
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Beneficiaries were selected individuals from our catchment areas whereby we sought to involve first those who are in lack of skills and capacities that launch such a program. We trained also people in the design of the system, into digital tools, and post-harvest activities There were 120 people whereby 70 were ladies. The different services were rendered by selected technical partners who helped in training beneficiaries, in installation energy and water supply, and also in funding the activities
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Fulgence, Mr