Safia’s joy is in her ability to take care of her seven children, especially paying for their school fees. As a widow, it has not been easy for her to send all her children to school.
Sung-Mwini Safia is a 43 -year- old woman from the Gbache community. She is a widow with seven (7) children. One of the children is at the tertiary level while another is at the Senior High School. The other five children are all in school at the basic level. Safia and her children live with the late husband’s family.
Safia has been engaging in dry season vegetables production for the past nine years. She has always cultivated okra, but the yields from her farm has always been poor. In 2015, Safia joined the GROW Project. Though she could not cultivate soya that season, she benefited from all the trainings conducted by CAPECS for her group. This included trainings on dry season vegetables production, including the use of organic fertilizer, mulching and integrated pest management. They were also encouraged to plant certified seeds. Following these trainings, Safia adopted the practices taught and also bought some improved okra variety which she planted alongside the local variety this season. She observed that the improved variety yielded better and is not easily affected by diseases For Safia, an increment in the yield from her farm has invariably translated into an increment in her off-season income. When asked whether she is satisfied so far with the yield she is getting , she answered,
“I would have wished to have more [laughing], but this is not bad. At least, am able to take care of my children. One is in the college at Wa and the other is in secondary school at Jirapa. So I use everything to pay for school fees…”
The increase in her okra yield and the subsequent increase in her income could not have come at a more appropriate time. Her plans are to use only certified seed of different okra varieties come the next season. She appealed to CAPECS to assist her access more certified seeds in preparation for next season, now that she has seen the benefits therein. “If your office can assist me get more of the certified seeds it will helpful to me. I can see that, that one is performing better than the one I have been planting”n amount of GHC600.00 per week from her okra farm at the time of recording this story. Meanwhile she had been harvesting since the last two weeks.
