USDA co-op development
efforts support commercial
farming in Ghana
By John R. Dunn, Director
Co-op Resources Management Division
USDA Rural Development
ince 2000, the
Cooperatives Program of
USDA Rural
Development has been
working in
Ghana to build westernstyle
cooperatives that
help Ghanaian farmers
successfully market their
farm products. The vital
work in this poor, West
African nation is carried
out under the banner of
the Consultative
Committee on
Agriculture and Rural
Development (CCARD).
CCARD is a formal, government-to-government
relationship between
USDA and the Ghana
Ministry of Food and
Agriculture (MOFA).
The purpose of the
Ghana Cooperative project
is to extend western
cooperative models into a
Ghanaian setting to help
farmers there transition to
a more commercial level
of food production. The
project operates with a
two-pronged strategy of
direct advisory assistance
and training which targets
existing cooperatives
and intervenes with
Ghanaian institutions
that can help sustain the adoption of
western cooperative models over the
long haul.
CCARD conducts a series of joint
activities that serve the agricultural and
trade interests of both nations. USDA
agencies with active involvement in
CCARD include: Rural Development;
Cooperative Research, Education and
Extension Service, Foreign Agricultural
Service; Natural Resources Conservation
Service; and the
Agricultural Marketing
Service. Activities conducted
by CCARD are funded
primarily by the U.S.
Agency for International
Development (USAID).
The Ghana Cooperative
Assistance project, managed
by the Cooperatives
Program of USDA Rural
Development, was initially
funded under USAID’s
African Trade and
Investment Program
(ATRIP), but has since been
adopted by USAID’s mission
in Ghana. The ATRIPfunded
project covered work
both in Senegal (in partnership
with the Federation of
Southern Cooperatives) and
in Ghana (in partnership
with OIC International).
Current efforts focus exclusively
in Ghana and parallel
Rural Development’s
Nigeria cooperative development
project (see Rural
Cooperatives, Jan./Feb. 2004
issue).
Capacity building at
Ghana Cooperative College
The Ghana Cooperative College is
a small institution in Kumasi, the
Ashanti region capital. It is charged
with training managers and directors
of Ghana’s cooperative system in basic
cooperative principles and business
skills. This college is extremely lacking
in resources and was sliding into
decline, a result of diminishing public
funding and, more significantly, of
reliance on the teaching of outdated
and ineffective top-down models of
cooperative enterprise. Reform and
rejuvenation of the Cooperative
College became one of the centerpiece
projects under CCARD.
As a first step, former USDA
Cooperatives Program staff member
Rosemary Mahoney was contracted to
conduct a curriculum review and
assessment for the college. This
resulted in a series of recommendations
and strategies for improving the
overall conditions of the college.
In February, one of the centerpiece
recommendations was implemented
with the opening of a new computertraining
facility at the college. The
new computer lab will provide students
with basic training in business software
and IT methods essential to contemporary
business operations. The opening
of the center represents a true publicprivate
partnership. Partially funded by
USAID, with computer donations from
the National Cooperative Bank,
National Rural Telecommunications
Association and the Cooperative
Development Foundation, the center is
managed by volunteers of the U.S
Peace Corps.
Future activity will include staff
development, planning, and cooperative
course designs, to be done in partnership
with the Cooperative Center
at the University of Wisconsin.
Cooperatives provide
technical assistance
Rural Development’s Cooperatives
Program contracted with OIC
International, a Philadelphia-based
nonprofit organization, to provide the
in-country presence for the project,
which worked directly with a set of
selected cooperative associations.
Project coordinator Ferdinand
Nyantakyi Dapaah worked with
cooperative organizations identified as
“high potential” organizations. He
provided training and advisory assistance.
The focus was on structural or
operating issues that were constraining
the organizations from taking the
next necessary step toward business
success.
Farmapine Ghana Limited at
Nsawam, eastern region is a ‘farmerowned’
limited liability company
owned by five pineapple cooperative
societies (with an 80 percent share) and
two limited liability companies (with a
20 percent share) that received its original
capitalization through a World
Bank loan. The cooperative’s goal was
to build an export based marketing
program for Ghanaian pineapples.
Farmapine’s major challenges included
restructuring its finances to replace the
expiring World Bank loan, improving
product handling practices, and resolving
significant schisms within the
membership base.
The Cooperative Development project
coordinator provided formal training
to 320 members of the five pineapple
cooperatives to help in the development
and implementation of workable
business plans, cooperative basic
principles and governance, and pineapple
crown reduction to meet export
requirements. In addition, there is ongoing
mediation to help the cooperative
work through these issues and
move to a more sustainable footing.
Within two years of operation,
Farmapine Ghana Ltd. became the
second largest exporter of fresh
pineapples in Ghana.
Dawhenya Irrigation Cooperative
Rice Growers Society is an irrigatedrice
cooperative composed of about 120
farmers, each farming 1-2 hectares of
rice. This cooperative, formed around a
Ghanaian government irrigation plan,
enabled farmers to produce high-quality
rice, but they lacked capacity to mill
more than about 10 percent of the
members’ production, meaning they
had to sell lower value, in-hull rice.
The development project worked
with the cooperative to establish a
more formal business plan that provided
the foundation for the co-op to
arrange milling services for all of its
members’ crop. This basic, valueadded
improvement produced a product
farmers could sell for nearly twice
the value of their unprocessed rice.
Through the cooperative development
project, the members have also been
linked to a large-scale buyer,
Continental Commodity Trading Co.
This company provides inputs for
farmers on credit and buys the majority
of the rice produced by these farmers,
processes and packages it, then
markets the rice under the Ghana
Pride brand.
Cassava-starch project
has major potential
A major poverty reduction initiative
under Ghana President J. A. Kufour
involves the creation of a starch-manufacturing
industry to help Ghanaian
farmers increase income from their
cassava crop. Cassava, a root crop that
is a staple of Ghanaian diet, has historically
been subject to considerable losses.
President Kufour’s program is
intended to build 10 cassava-starch
production plants over a five-year period.
They will sell commercial-grade
starch, primarily to European markets.
The first of these plants, the Ayensu
Starch Company (ASCo), established
at Bawjiase in the central region, was
formally commissioned by President
Kufour on Feb. 24.
The cooperative development project
is working with the Ghanaian
Ministry of Trade and Industry to
develop farmer cooperatives to supply
cassava root to the plants and, eventually,
to take an ownership position.
Some 10,000 small farmers have been
organized into cooperative units to
support the initial plant of this
nationwide program. The grassroots,
democratic structures established for
these co-ops have facilitated production
planning, input supply and technical
assistance. Additionally, two new
farmer cooperatives are being organized
for two new cassava-processing
plants for Eastern and Ashanti regions
this year.
Many challenges remain
Business success is never guaranteed
for cooperatives, even in the most
advanced economies. The vulnerabilities
and fragilities present within
economies of developing nations make
the cooperative development process
even more daunting. For example, in
spite of its significant gains, the survival
of Dawhenya Irrigation
Cooperative Rice Society Ltd., is very
much in doubt. The situation is the
same for another cooperative targeted
for assistance, Weiji Irrigation
Cooperative Vegetable Growers
Society Ltd.
Significant changes in electricprice
policies of the Ghanaian government
have jeopardized the viability of
all agribusinesses tied to public irrigation
projects. Many other challenges
will continue to face Ghanaian cooperatives.
Other needs include: better transportation
systems, more reliable utilities
and communications systems, better
post-harvest handling practices,
adoption of meaningful grades and
standards and modern processing and
packaging capacities. These are just
some of the needs against which
Ghanaian farmers must struggle to
realize a degree of the success of their
counterparts in the developed world.
Yet by addressing their problems
together, in cooperative businesses that
they own and in which they actively
participate, Ghanaian farmers are
learning the power of cooperation.
Why help Ghana’s cooperatives?
Often, when hearing of USDA’s efforts to help
cooperatives in developing nations, people ask
“why?” This is understandable. The answer is based
on both pragmatism it helps us and a humanitarian
philosophy of helping others learn to support
themselves.
Successful cooperatives will generate income for
farmers and directly contribute to economic growth.
Increased income will, eventually, lead to increased
demand for U.S. products. Stronger cooperative businesses
in developing nations will also facilitate trade
between those cooperatives and U.S. trading partners.
Activities of this sort which improve the economic
and social conditions in developing nations build permanent reservoirs of goodwill toward the
United States. The benefits of this can be far reaching.
Finally, participatory democracy is a fundamental
principle of the cooperative form of business. In a time
of challenge such as this, what better “product” can
the United States export than democracy?
