The Jubilee Oil Field Partners have introduced the Livelihood Diversification and Support Project (LDSP) to improve and enhance the economic lifestyle of fishermen in the six coastal districts of the Western Region.

The six coastal districts have fishing as their main economic stay but with the advent of the oil find coupled with bad fishing practices, the sea stock is predicted to be declining and thus the need for other alternative sources of income.

The Jubilee oilfield partners made up of GNPC, PetroSA, Tullow, KOSMOS and Anadarko are funding the one-year (LDSP) in 21 communities with about 372 beneficiaries.

In this regard, the Jubilee Partners have contracted: the Business Building on Value Integrity and Dignity (B-BOVID) and Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products (ASNAPP) to implement the project that sought to assist the fishing communities.

The B-BOVID will promote the cultivation of orange flesh sweet potatoes and Ampong cassava variety through a new model of socially inclusive commercial farming whilst ASNAPP will focus on intensive vegetable production and piggery production through greenhouse Indigenous Micro Organisms (IMO) technology.

The project would also build the capacity of beneficiaries in the cultivation and marketing of vegetables through greenhouse technology and the rearing of pigs using Indigenous Micro Organisms technology.

Mr Kwasi Amponsah Boateng, Social Performance and Public Affairs Manager of Tullow, at the launch in Axim, said the jubilee Partners were financing three critical areas: health, water and sanitation, livelihood and enterprise development as well as education and training.

He said the LSDP formed part of their newest social investment programmes to improve lives of the Partners’ operational areas.

According to him, the Jubilee Partners have carefully considered the existing income generation activities in the beneficiary communities with the view of introducing technological innovations and new ways of doing things that will improve yield and income generation.

Once the beneficiaries are conversant with project outcomes, the initiatives will be sustainable, he added.

Mr George Sarpong, Corporate Affairs Director of Kosmos Energy, who represented the Jubilee Partners, said the LSDP is an effort to explore other livelihoods in the agriculture sector that can support economic opportunity and sustainability for the communities whose livelihoods have been challenged.

“We want our community members to have other sources of income and business to which they can fall back to or work side by side in addition to their normal fishing activities”, he said.

Mr Sarpong said there would be the creation of a database and the formation of a farmer network to provide market linkages for the produce.

He said there would also be monitoring, evaluation and learning frame work and reporting system.

The Corporate Affairs Manager urged beneficiaries of the project to commit to making it a success adding, “We are in this together to help build the future economic prosperity for our communities, the Western Region and Ghana as a whole.”

Madam Anima Eliah, a beneficiary of the project, expressed gratitude to the project sponsors saying, “Now we can work and finance the education of our children and take proper care of our homes”.