The Northern Ghana Integrated Development Project (NGIDP), has donated working tools worth GH¢32, 400.00 to 60 Female Agricultural Extension Volunteers in the Gushegu Municipality of the Northern Region to enable them enhance service delivery.

The items, funded by the European Union (EU), included raincoats, hand gloves, cutlasses, measuring tapes, field notebooks, pens, pencils, waterproof bags, T-shirts among others.

The donation was made at the end of a three-day workshop, organised by a consortium of organisations including ActionAid Ghana, Urbanet, and Tree Aid Ghana with funding support from the EU.

The workshop, attended by participants from 13 farming communities in the Municipality, was aimed at promoting sustainable agricultural practices and creating opportunities for income generation among women within the agricultural value chain.

Mr Jibreel Mohammed Basit, NGIDP Coordinator for Urbanet, said agricultural extension services were critical to ensuring sustained increase in productivity, income and food security, hence the need to provide working tools to the volunteers to facilitate their work.

Mr Basit expressed worry about the inadequate agricultural extension officers in the Gushegu Municipality and said "The NGIDP in the Municipality is adopting the Female Extension Volunteer Model as a strategy to enhance female farmers' access to extension services and increased productivity".

He noted that the project in collaboration with the Gushegu Municipal Directorate of Agriculture, would train a total of 60 Female Agricultural Extension Volunteers from 20 project farming communities in the area.

He indicated that this would help equip trainees with the requisite knowledge and skills in basic extension so that they could assist their fellow women with agricultural information and guidance.

Mr Issah Musah, Gushegu Municipal Chief Executive, expressed gratitude to the organisers and their partners for the intervention, saying it would boost the morale of women to venture into agricultural production to ensure food security in the area.