Impact of the E4L Project on Food Security and Livelihoods Among Beneficiaries in Savelugu Municipality of Northern Region, Ghana

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Agricultural production is the main activity in the northern sector of Ghana and is practiced mainly on seasonal and subsistence level. Most farmers in Northern Ghana are therefore food insecure owing to post-harvest, the seasonal of nature of agriculture, coupled with inadequate modern agricultural technologies. Adoption of modern agricultural technologies and cultural practices such as irrigation, fertilizer application, use of resistant varieties, good planting and harvesting times, among others might be the panacea to increased agricultural production and improved food security and livelihoods among farmers in northern Ghana. The study therefore sought to assess the impact of the Empowerment for Life (E4L) programme intervention on food security and livelihood among beneficiary women and farmer groups in Savelugu/Nanton Municipal of Northern region of Ghana. Out of several project interventions that are implemented in the Northern region, the purposive sampling technique was used to select the Empowerment for Life (E4L) programme for the study. Out of the five operational districts of the Empowerment for Life (E4L) programme, the Savelugu/Nanton municipal was selected through simple random sampling. The simple random sampling technique was again used to select ten beneficiary groups, out of a total of seventeen beneficiary groups in the Savelugu/Nanton municipal, for the study. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 45 beneficiary farmers, 40 beneficiary women and 5 members of E4L staff. In all, 100 respondents were selected for the study. The study revealed that majority of the beneficiary farmers have had improved food security through the adoption of improved agronomic practices and improved linkage between farmers and other actors in agricultural value chain. The study further established that the livelihoods of beneficiary farmers have been improved through improved capacity building, information sharing and improved access to productive resources such as land, labour and farm inputs. The study also revealed that in times of difficulties, majority of the farmers relied on their savings and/or sale of property as the mitigation measure or coping strategy. It is recommended that capacity building of farmers on agronomic practices and improved modern methods of farming should be intensified to further sharping the skills of farmers for increased productivity and hence, improved food security and livelihoods.