FARMERS’ PARTICIPATION AS A CRITICAL COMPONENT TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GHANA SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME IN THE WEST GONJA DISTRICT OF THE NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

School Feeding Programmes have been popular in developing countries as an instrument for achieving the Millennium Development Goals 1, 2 and 3. With respect to the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) the role of the farmer in contributing to its success has received little attention in academic discourse. On that basis, this study therefore focused on investigating farmers’ participation as a critical component to the implementation of the GSFP in the West Gonja District. Case study design constituted the study design. The sample size for the study was 129. Questionnaire and interviews aided in the collection of data from farmers, caterers and stakeholders of the GSFP. First, the study found out that the participation of the farmers is vital to the survival of the GSFP. Furthermore, most of the respondents indicated the GSFP is beneficial to the local farmers because they get ready market for their produce, income and loans from the caterers, incur low transportation cost and their children are fed. Finally, the study identified the challenges associated with the purchase of food supplies from the farmers, which include low demand for foodstuffs supplied, lack of credit facilities, late release of funds to purchase foodstuffs, high cost of foodstuff, farmers not willing to sell on credit and limited supply of produce. The study recommends the community contributing to fund the feeding, the provision of credit facilities to farmers, the training of farmers and making it compulsory for caterers to buy foodstuffs from local sources. This would ensure that farmers’ output increases to enable them benefit hugely from the GSFP.