Food Processing and Gari Production: A Case Study of Food Security in Western Ghana
By Anila Churi
Many communities throughout Ghana suffer from seasonal food shortages during the dry season, while others become food insecure as a consequence of market price fluctuations and shifts in the world economy.[1] Having researched food security throughout the country, I was interested in gaining a greater understanding of food insecurity in rural Ghana, as rural households are much more likely to become food insecure than their urban counterparts.[2] In particular, I wanted to examine in greater detail the factors that contribute to food insecurity for rural populations and how rural communities deal with this problem. Rather than simply speaking with international organizations that are working to combat food insecurity, I was particularly interested in visiting rural communities that are directly affected by food shortages. I was also hoping to 1) learn more about the collaboration between local community organizations and international organizations on projects designed to enhance food security and 2) to explore the benefits and challenges of such partnerships.
I began preparing for my case study by contacting representatives from the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization to see if they had ongoing projects in the Western region that related to issues of food security. I selected these two organizations because they deal comprehensively with agricultural production and food security and have conducted in-depth reports on the state of food security in Ghana. Both organizations are based in Accra and mainly operate in the Northern Region, where food insecurity is most prevalent. Unfortunately, time constraints kept me from visiting the North.
Due to these limitations, CARE, an international NGO that operates in Takoradi, facilitated a case study at a local market in Western Ghana, near the border of Cote d’Ivoire. Although CARE is not solely focused on food security or agriculture, the organization offered a great deal of knowledge about the communities in the Western Region and proved to be an invaluable connection to the locals. Nonetheless, my research was limited by my inability to communicate directly with the locals without a translator and by time constraints on our visit to this community. In the following paragraphs, I present an account of the visit to the market and a summary of my findings.
On the morning of June 8th, Gabriel from CARE took a group of us to a local market in the Western Region of Ghana. By the time we arrived the vendors had already run out of gari, processed cassava, which was the product we had come to learn about. We then went to visit Sowodadzem, another nearby market, to learn about gari production and a local enterprise group with which CARE collaborates.
| “While enhanced cocoa production may improve the livelihoods of these farmers and thus provide them the income to buy adequate food stamps, cocoa farming is also potentially problematic for improving local food security.” |
Before our arrival Gabriel explained how the lean season, which according to the Comprehensive Food Security & Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) spans from March to September,[3] affects local livelihoods and household food security. Many people in the Western part of the country are cocoa farmers and use the money they earn from cocoa to buy food stamps. During the lean season, when cocoa production is low, farmers do not earn a sufficient income to buy food stamps, which they rely on as they do not grow enough food to cover their own needs. As a result, these farmers must illegally hunt for bush meat.
While enhanced cocoa production may improve the livelihoods of these farmers and thus provide them the income to buy adequate food stamps, cocoa farming is also potentially problematic for improving local food security. As Gabriel explained, farming land in this area has been limited as a result of widespread cocoa farming because “cocoa trees create a canopy and other crops cannot be planted” since they will not survive in the shade. Furthermore, farmers in the area rely on rainwater for their harvest, as is typical throughout the country. If a drought occurs, the farmer’s yield is limited, thus lowering income levels. As these factors suggest, ensuring sustainable livelihoods and diversifying crops (to include food crops) is important for enhancing the food security of the local population and could also help prevent illegal hunting.
In order to address some of these issues, CARE is collaborating with a local enterprise group, called Sunkwa. Sunkwa, which CARE helped establish, consists of 22 community members who produce gari, or processed cassava flakes. To make gari, cassava is dehydrated over the fire and then grated by hand into flakes. The cassava is processed during bumper harvests, when crop yields are high, so that it can be sold at high prices during the lean season. During my visit, a large bowl of gari (estimated at a quart) was being sold for 3 Ghana cedis. Processing cassava enables farmers to earn greater revenue from their harvest, as they do not have to worry about crops spoiling or selling their products during the low season as a result of inadequate storage. Thus, production of gari creates a more stable revenue stream than simply selling cassava since it generates needed income during the lean season.
Sunkwa sells the gari they produce at local rural markets, larger markets in Takoradi, and also to schools, as part of the School Feeding Programme. Unlike other food producers in the country, access to markets does not appear to be a big problem for this group. However, Sunkwa still faces many challenges. Access to credit is difficult, as is support from the government, which tends to focus its funding on the cash crop sector, rather than food crops like cassava. To address the issue of limited credit availability, CARE stresses a collective marketing system in which enterprise group members are required to make a minimum contribution of .5% of their sales to a seed fund, which is then used for internal lending. Samuel, a Project Manager for CARE, with whom I have communicated via email since returning to the United States, describes this strategy as important because it will help garner lending from rural banks, which are more likely to support groups that are well-established, as opposed to those that are still in the formative stages of development.
Samuel also described the difficulties of facilitating a cohesive enterprise group like Sunkwa. According to Samuel, many challenges that arise stem from the fact that these enterprise groups existed prior to CARE’s entry and “most groups were initially constituted to access some form of support from governmental agencies, and consequently collapsed after getting such support, or due to their inability to get the anticipated material support.” Past failures have created tensions and bred mistrust, making collaboration difficult. Additionally, Samuel explained that many groups have not focused on sustainable economic well-being for their members.
To address the local challenges with food security and the difficulties that past enterprise groups have faced, Samuel explained that CARE is working to develop group skills such as “leadership and membership responsibilities, communication, meetings, characteristics of good groups, collective marketing, banking culture, and natural resource management laws.” CARE has trained Sunkwa to conduct market surveys so that the group can maximize profits by selling when prices are high and by controlling the availability of gari in the market. These are important skills, as Gabriel reported that selling gari can be problematic if there is too much of the product at the market. Thus, CARE’s training is effective at enhancing Sunkwa’s business skills, making the group more resilient.
Although gari is making an important contribution to the members of the Sunkwa group by providing a sustainable livelihood, it is quite labor-intensive to produce as it is all done by hand, which is time-consuming. Gabriel explained to the group members we spoke with that CARE is planning to provide processing machines to Sunkwa to aid in the production of gari. As an independent observer, this seemed to be a very effective strategy to increase the group’s productivity, thus enhancing their livelihoods and food security. However, several members of the group began chatting amongst themselves in response to Gabriel’s statement. One man responded saying that if the group had machines then they would need funds in order to cultivate more cassava. I thought this was a very telling response. This man’s statement high-lights some of the complexities of having a small, community-based organization collaborating with a large international NGO, a relationship in which the smaller group could easily become dependent upon the larger organization. I question how sustainable the Sunkwa enterprise will be if the members are overly reliant on the funding and resources from CARE. The provision of processing machines should increase Sunkwa’s productivity which, in turn should increase their earning and thus enable them to inject more of their profits into asset development, such as the purchase of seeds and the construction of warehouses, since the group currently relies on individual member’s storage facilities. In order to be a successful enterprise, Sunkwa’s revenue must be self-sustaining. Ensuring that a sufficient amount of their profits are funneled back into the group’s investments will also make them more attractive to lenders, enabling them to grow even more.
As I was interested in gaining a broader understanding of the group’s food security, I also asked Gabriel if efforts were being made to process any of the other vegetables and food crops currently grown in the area. Gabriel explained that other vegetables grown in Western Ghana, such as eggplant and peppers, have a short shelf life and thus efforts have not been focused on these crops. While limited technology and access to equipment and storage facilities do make this difficult, I wonder if investing time and money into processing other vegetables would be worthwhile, as it would diversify the group’s products, making them more resilient to price fluctuations, and preventing them from producing so much gari that it floods the market. However, it is also important that the group not take on too many enterprises before they are well-established.
| “Another benefit of CARE’s assistance is that as Sunkwa grows and becomes well-established it should be able to attract hard-to-access credit.” |
Overall, my visit to the Sowodadzem market and my interviews with the Sunkwa group members nicely complemented the research I had done previously on Ghana’s food security, giving me an up-close look into factors contributing to rural food insecurity. Whereas much of my prior research focused on the food insecurity of small, rural food crop farmers who could not produce enough food for their own needs, my case study with CARE and Sunkwa revealed the complexities of food security for rural non-food crop farmers (in particular, cocoa farmers), showing how even farmers of such an important cash-crop can suffer from seasonal livelihood insecurity. Admittedly, however, the information I gathered on this visit was limited by the very short time we were able to spend at the market with the Sunkwa. Though my case study was informative, it would have been very helpful to have had more time to speak with the group.
The interviews with Gabriel from CARE and with the members of the Sunkwa group reveal the close connection between sustainable liveli-hoods and food security. Without a sustainable source of income during the lean season, it becomes increasingly difficult for farmers to afford food stamps, leading them to hunt illegally for bush meat. While the factors contributing to food security in the Western region and for the community I visited may reflect similar circumstances to other non-food crop farming communities in Ghana, my research does not infer that the same factors are at play in every community in the country. Indeed there are large regional differences in food security levels throughout Ghana, and different factors contribute to insecurity in each region, and perhaps in each community.
CARE is helping to address the issues of food insecurity for the community I visited in the Western region by focusing on enterprise development, assisting the local Sunkwa group in the creation of a sustainable source of income through gari production. The trainings and resources CARE is providing Sunkwa suggest the benefits of collaboration between large NGOs and small community groups. This partnership seems to be helping the twenty-two gari producers establish more consistent and stable income streams throughout the lean season. In turn, the strengthened livelihoods that ensue from gari sales should translate into enhanced food security for the Sunkwa members and their families. Another benefit of CARE’s assistance is that as Sunkwa grows and becomes well-established it should be able to attract hard-to-access credit.
While my visit to Sowodadzem suggests that small community groups and large organizations can partner to help enhance local livelihoods and improve communities’ food security, the group’s request for funds also made me question how dependent the local group is on CARE and what will happen when CARE is no longer collaborating with Sunkwa. It seems to me that local capacities must be explored and used further to ensure that these communities’ improved livelihoods are sustained. Though time was not permitting on this visit, it would be helpful to continue to research the Sunkwa group over an extended period to see how gari production is enhancing their livelihoods and improving their food security and to watch how their relationship with CARE changes and develops. To gain a better understanding of food security throughout rural Ghana, it would also be helpful to visit several different communities and other small enterprise groups throughout the country.
[1] Lisa Biederlack and Jonathan Rivers, “Comprehensive Food Security & Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) Ghana,” World Food Programme, April 2009, <http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp201820.pdf>, p. 14.
[2] Biederlack, p. 14.
[3] Ibid