Backyard farming an old farming practice is gradually gaining back prominence as some women are developing pieces of lands around their homes for farming purposes.

The president of Mother’s Club in Development, Mariama Salifu, has been growing vegetables for the past two years at her residence in Nima. 
Passion fruit, Kontomire and tomatoes are among the crops she grows in her garden in the middle of her small compound in Nima.

Together with some 250 women of the Mother’s club in Development, they were introduced to the backyard farming practice by the German Development Agency GIZ in 2016.

According to her, “GIZ assisted about 250 women here in Nima. After going through a series of training, they gave us different types of seedlings, black soil and compost to start our farm.”

Mariam Salifu explained how the initiative by GIZ has been of help to them, she said, besides feeding her family, she is able to make some money by selling some of the products and sharing with friends as well.

“I get a lot of benefits from these crops. Especially, the passion fruit can be used for ice-cream and has more health benefits. I feed on the crops together with my family, through this, I am able to save GH₵5 or GH₵10 that would have been used in the market,” she noted.

Mariam is hoping to take her gardening to the next level where she would concentrate on the ornamental capabilities of plants.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in-charge of perennial crops Kinsley Nyarko said backyard farming could be a good source of food to many Ghanaian homes. He, therefore, entreated many to cultivate the habit.

“There are new technologies you can use to grow tomatoes, pepper, onion and others. This is what the government will encourage everyone to get involved.

The Ministry has an abundance of seeds you can purchase, it is not for free but the government has subsidized it to encourage farming activities,’ he said.   

Mr Nyarko added that the Ministry of Agriculture has an array of high yielding seeds which interested farmers can purchase.

In some parts of the world like Australia, backyard farming is seen as a source of income for the farmers as particular crops are grown even out of season. It is also seen as a way to feed family and nature.

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