Growing Project Ghana

Happy Farmers’ Day 2025! Feed Ghana, Eat Ghana, Secure the Future.

The GROWING Project proudly celebrates the resilience, dedication, and innovation of farmers across Ghana, especially our exceptional Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato farmers who continue to drive nutrition, livelihoods, and local economic growth in our communities.

Through the GROWING Project, we have seen firsthand how smallholder farmers, particularly women and youth, are transforming sweetpotato production into a powerful source of income, food security, and improved nutrition. From access to improved vines and climate-smart farming practices to stronger market linkages and processing opportunities, farmers are not just producing food, they are building sustainable futures.

We recognize the early mornings, the long hours, the risks taken each season, and the strong commitment to feeding families and communities. Your work supports markets, strengthens value chains, and nourishes generations.

To all our farmers, today and every day, we say thank you. Your impact goes far beyond the farm.

Excited to share our ongoing efforts in promoting Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP) across local communities. Through targeted market engagements, product demonstrations, and collaboration with processors, we are strengthening awareness of OFSP’s nutritional value and its potential to improve incomes, especially for women and youth.

From fresh roots to puree-based products like bread, biscuits, and cereals, OFSP is proving to be a game changer for both nutrition and agribusiness. By building stronger linkages across the value chain, we’re helping farmers, processors, and retailers tap into a growing market with real opportunities.

The GROWING Project is not simply about activities, targets or timelines. It is about transforming people. It is about equipping community members with the skills, confidence and networks they need to thrive long after the project ends.

Through farmer training, market linkages, gender empowerment and nutrition-focused agriculture, we are not just improving livelihoods. We are building lasting capacity.

In the villages where we work, we see women stepping into leadership roles, youth discovering agribusiness opportunities and farmer groups negotiating better prices together. Communities are learning how to organize, innovate and sustain progress on their own terms.

It is this transformation, the shift from dependence to self-reliance, from subsistence to market-driven farming, from isolated effort to collective action, that makes the GROWING Project more than a project. Just like the crops our farmers grow, these seeds will continue yielding benefits for years to come.

One of the key drivers of sustainable behaviour change in communities is the meaningful involvement of local leaders. Community chiefs, religious leaders, women’s group leaders, and youth influencers are not just respected voices, they are the bridge between development interventions and local realities. In the Project, we’ve seen that when these leaders are engaged from the start, change becomes more organic and deeply rooted. They help translate messages around nutrition, gender equity, and agriculture into culturally relevant practices that people trust and adopt more easily. By co-creating solutions through dialogue, participatory planning, and capacity-building, the GROWING Project ensures that interventions are not just externally introduced but locally owned. This approach has led to stronger community buy-in, less resistance to change, and more sustainable impact. Real change happens when communities lead it, and that’s exactly what the Project is committed to supporting.

Project Ghana in partnership with CARE are making remarkable strides in transforming . In a recent engagement, the project successfully brought together GFC farmers, community-based extension agents, healthy food connectors, market committee members at the community level, nutritious food promoters, and district vine multipliers. This gathering provided a unique opportunity for dialogue, networking, and relationship-building among actors who often work in silos but are deeply interconnected in practice. For many participants, it was the first time meeting other key contributors to the value chain, and the event helped them understand how their roles align to support a common goal. By fostering these connections, the GROWING Project is laying the groundwork for a more integrated and resilient market system. Stronger linkages mean better coordination, more inclusive participation, and ultimately, improved livelihoods, especially for youth and women who are at the heart of our efforts. Through collaboration, we are not only enhancing market efficiency but also growing healthier communities and stronger local economies.

This year, on the , the Growing Project is thrilled to spotlight the transformative potential of Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP) through an array of innovative value-added products. These include OFSP Biscuits, OFSP Granola, OFSP Bread, OFSP Nutri Mix, OFSP Koose Plus, and many more creative offerings. These products showcase the remarkable versatility of sweetpotatoes, highlighting their rich nutritional benefits and diverse consumption possibilities.

In Northern Ghana, the Growing Project collaborates with medium-scale agro-processors to drive economic empowerment and create sustainable job opportunities. By harnessing the potential of OFSP, the project not only promotes healthier diets but also fosters local innovation and economic growth, paving the way for a brighter, more resilient future.

The International Potato Center in partnership with the for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) successfully facilitated a high-level stakeholder round-table discussion on , import substitution, and export promotion under the theme "Leveraging Science, Technology and Innovation to Enhance Food Security, Promote Import Substitution and Drive Export Promotion through Roots and Tuber Crops." The event, held at the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), convened key stakeholders, researchers, policymakers, and development partners committed to advancing Ghana’s agricultural transformation agenda.
The Honorable Minister for MESTI, Dr. Muhammed Murtala, delivered a powerful message on the critical role of science and technology in building a resilient and self-reliant food system. We were also honored by the presence of the Director General of the International Potato Center (CIP), Dr. Simon Heck, who contributed valuable insights into the strategic potential of root and tuber crops - particularly sweetpotato—in achieving food and nutrition security.
A significant part of the discussion focused on the role of orange-fleshed sweetpotato as a climate-resilient and nutrient-dense crop that holds immense promise for improving livelihoods, reducing malnutrition, and supporting agricultural value chain development in Ghana. Participants explored opportunities for scaling up production, strengthening value chains, and promoting sweetpotato as a viable option for both domestic consumption and export.
This roundtable discussion marks a critical step establishing a partnership for collaborated efforts in roots and tubers research and development to drive sustainable agri-food systems. The momentum built here will fuel future partnerships aimed at realizing Ghana’s full potential in food sovereignty and economic resilience.

In the rural markets of Northern Ghana, one of the biggest challenges faced by women traders has always been transportation. With limited access to affordable and reliable means of moving goods, many women have had to walk long distances or depend on costly alternatives just to get their produce to market.

That’s where Tricycles are making a real difference!

By providing durable, motorized tricycles designed for tough terrains, Tricycles is helping women transport produce and goods more efficiently, giving women greater control over their businesses, boosting income opportunities, and enhancing their role in local value chains.