00:02It's a dry season in northeastern Ghana, but you wouldn't notice it looking at this
00:06flourishing garden. The harvest for the Kunkwa Women's Cooperative is good.
00:11Onions and many other vegetables are growing well on the five-hectare plot.
00:16From December to March, the hot Hamatan wind from the Sahara normally dries out the land.
00:22Water is scarce along with income and good food.
00:28In the past, we were always idle during the dry season. No one would have anything to
00:33do. And getting money to buy food was hard. But all that is in the past now. This cooperative
00:40garden has changed everything for us.
00:49Most farmers in the region are totally dependent on the rain. But for years now, the amount
00:54of rainfall has been decreasing, impacting the harvest and driving farming families deeper
01:00into poverty. Many people are migrating to find work elsewhere or they are forced to find
01:05other sources of income.
01:11At first, we were just cutting down trees for wood and charcoal. They told us that it was
01:17affecting the rains, but we couldn't stop because we had nothing else.
01:22We even cut down share trees, but it didn't help us. Since we stopped doing that and came
01:28here, everything has started getting better.
01:34Kunkwa's green miracle began in 2023. The cooperative built a solar-powered drip irrigation system. Thanks
01:41to funding from the United Nations, six solar panels now power a pump in a well that delivers
01:4736,000 liters of water every day. The system ensures a steady water supply all year round. The additional
01:54harvest during the dry season have improved the women's lives permanently. The five hectares
02:00of land are divided equally between the farmers. They all have access to a plot of irrigated land.
02:12Solar-powered irrigation is still quite rare in Ghana, thus mainly due to the cost. Many small
02:18farmers can't afford expensive irrigation systems. Vegetable farmer Adungu Klamit Atamia uses
02:24a diesel-powered pump, even though fuel is expensive.
02:29The money is the problem. Like the way we are here farming, the market is not there. Last week
02:38they came and bought about 450 Ghanaian cities. So you can imagine that. So how are you going
02:46to contribute the money to go and buy the solar? That's our main problem.
02:52But change may be coming. In 2025, the Ghanaian government launched a program that aims to provide
02:59solar irrigation for 400,000 hectares of land. Over the next three years, farmers still have to pay
03:05for the system. The adoption is low because of the initial cost, but it's quite affordable
03:11for a smallholder farmer compared to the bigger system. But I think that if an organization or financial
03:18institution steps into pre-finance for the smallholder farmers and they are able to farm year-round,
03:22they will be able to pay for the cost of the system. The plan aims to have 3,500 solar
03:31pumps
03:31with boreholes by the end of 2028. That would not only allow irrigation. It would also ensure
03:38the supply of clean drinking water, which is often lacking, especially during the dry season.
03:44The Women's Cooperative, meanwhile, has had 3 years of solar irrigation and seen a sharp rise
03:50in yields of staple foods like cassava. Many families in Kukwa now have more income and food security
03:58in the village has improved. Even growing staples was difficult in the dry season. It used to be
04:05really tough for families. But that's all in the past now. Everyone in this community has more than
04:10enough to eat, even fresh produce. Every Saturday, the women can also deposit any additional income in a
04:18self-managed savings bank. If one of them wants to invest in a business idea, she can then borrow money
04:24from the bank. The savings are paid out to everyone once a year.
04:31We record each member's contribution. When it is time to share the funds, everyone gets what they contributed.
04:41Notting Ghana is especially hard hit by drought and rising temperatures. Without artificial irrigation,
04:47it will be difficult for people to survive there long term.
04:54But the Kukwa Women's Cooperative shows that communities can adapt and with relatively little investment,
05:02allowing them to stay in their own homes and not be forced to migrate.
05:05...
05:06Yeah, you.
Comments