Sungbo Women Empowerment Organisation (SWEO), a non-governmental organization (NGO) in the Upper West Region has awarded some 142 women farmers in the Wa East District for successfully cultivating soya beans for domestic and commercial consumption.

The awardees who were drawn from various communities in the district received farm equipment and inputs ranging from knapsack sprayers to bags of fertilisers for their exploits.

Speaking at the maiden event at Dupare last Saturday, the Chief Executive Officer of SWEO, Ms Portia Tang said her organisation was interested in enhancing the well-being of women in the region.

She explained that with its presence in six Municipal and District Assemblies, SWEO gave support to women farmers to cultivate soya beans by providing them with the requisite farm implements and inputs on credit basis for repayment later.

“This award ceremony is to recognise the efforts of women who took our credit facilities for their farming, paid on time and maximised productivity”, she said.

She explained that the award sought to also encourage more women to venture into farming and commended the traditional authorities for making land available to the women.

The CEO explained that her organisation was interested in economic empowerment of women and sought to equip women with the necessary skills and support in their various fields of endeavour to enhance productivity and economic independence.

“We have trained some young ladies in shea butter processing and supported them with processing machines as well as mechanised boreholes for the production of shea products”, she said.

Ms Tang encouraged more women to venture into agriculture and appealed to landowners and chiefs to provide land for the women in order to support their quest.

For her part, the District Director at the Department of Agriculture, Ms Mavis Daregobah bemoaned the prevalence of bushfires as well as stealing of farm produce and livestock in the area and said that it thwarted the efforts of farmers.

She appealed to chiefs, landlords and the assembies to institute measures towards combating such criminal and unproductive acts against farmers in the area.

She called on farmers to endeavour to produce beyond subsistence level by venturing into commercial farming in order to maximise profit.

Madam Asata Shaibu Muhammadu from Duapri and Madam Karima Alhassan from Goripie were adjudged the overall best farmers.

Each of the two women received a bicycle, knapsack sprayers, weedicides and a pair of wellington boots for cultivating eight acres of soya beans each and paying up the credit they received from the NGO on time.

FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, DUPARE