The World Food Programme (WFP) under its Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative has trained smallholder low income farmers on bakery and pastry products and preparation of “winimix” to empower them with alternative means of livelihood.

Winimix is a highly nutritious food used to feed especially infants and the sick.

The beneficiary farmers, which comprised of 250 women and 50 men, were drawn from Sagnarigu, Tolon, and Kumbungu districts and Tamale Metro.

They were trained to use local crops such as cassava, maize, cowpea, soybean and yam to process yam potato composite flour products such as bread, pie, cake, cookies, chips and doughnuts.

Mr Kaz Fujiwara, Programme Officer of the WFP’s P4P, who briefed the Ghana News Agency at the closing of the two-week long training at Nyankpala on Thursday, said it formed part of the P4P's gender mainstreaming activities to serve as an income generating activity for the beneficiaries.

The WFP’s P4P involves an innovative way of buying staple food and promoting marketing opportunities for smallholder farmers.

Mr Fujiwara said the beneficiaries expressed interest to be trained on the bakery and pastry products preparation to enable them to sell the products in their various communities as additional source of income.

Madam Fatimata Fuseini, one of the beneficiaries from Kpanyili in the Tolon District, described the training as beneficial as it offered her additional skills, which she would make use of to earn an income.

Madam Fuseini, who is a rice farmer and processor, said she would also transfer the knowledge to others by training them.