About 200 smallholder farmers in the Western North Region have undergone entrepreneurial development skill training to empower them to set up alternative businesses to enhance their livelihoods.

They were trained in snail, pig, and fish farming as well as honey production.

At the end of the training, the beneficiaries were given start up kits to enable them to begin their new ventures of their choice.

The gesture was under the Landscape and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN) project being funded by the European Union (EU).

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the official presentation of the start-up kits, Mrs Abena Dufie Woode, Senior Project Manager at Rainforest Alliance, said the training was to support farmers to have improved economic livelihoods, that would encourage them to stop land degradation, support climate change issues and help protect forest reserves.

She mentioned that the LEAN project was a four-year project which was in its third year with emphasis on supporting f
armers to have improved livelihoods, hence the idea behind the training and supporting them with start-up kits.

Aside some areas within the Region, the project, according to her, was also being implemented in Offinso, Nkoranza, Techiman, West Gonja, Kasena Nankana and Paga with Rainforest Alliance, Tropenso Ghana, Ecocare and World Vision Ghana as the implementing partners.

Mrs Woode advised the beneficiary farmers to impart the knowledge they had acquired to other farmers to help them become economically stable.

Mr Slyvester Mensah, one of the beneficiaries, lauded the LEAN project implementors for the training, and said it would enable farmers to get additional income especially during the off season to support their farming activities and families.

He, however, appealed for the project to be extended to more areas so other farmers could also benefit from such interventions.

Source: Ghana News Agency