Dorothy Kamasa, committed to empowering rural women farmers in Ghana

In 2016, while on national service, Kamasa decided to use her free time to offer voluntary agricultural extension services to rural women and smallholder farmers to help them improve farm yields and build food security. This bright idea led to the creation of the Centre for Women and Food Security in Ghana (CeWaFS – Ghana) in 2018. An organization that has supported over 12,000 Ghanaian rural women farmers to date.

Today, Kamasa runs an agricultural organization, works as a researcher, and received several awards and international recognitions. A typical career, given her background. Growing up in the rural and agricultural region of Northern Ghana, she rose with focus and determination above several obstacles to have her dreams come to reality.

After high school, she first studied computer science before joining Cape Coast University for a degree in conservation biology and entomology, which she earned in 2016.

After graduation, she enrolled for the national service in 2016. During this period, she decided to use her spare time to help smallholder farmers, by educating them on climate adaptation and agricultural ethics. “I gradually began entering the farming’ communities. I simply taught them best agricultural practices that could help them maximize yields and, I shared the pictures of my engagements with them on social media. I was inspired to show that I could make a difference in their lives,”she tells Africa Women Experts.

For two years, she helped farmers, until one of her friends informed her of “Miss Agriculture Ghana 2018 contest” in which she participated and emerged 1st Runner Up and Most Disciplined contestant. As a result of this experience, she decided to create the Centre for Women and Food Security-Ghana (CeWaFS – Ghana) in 2018. An NGO assisting smallholder farmers, particularly rural women, in agricultural value chains development and helping them improving their livelihoods.

CeWaFS – Ghana, a community development based organization empowering rural women farmers

At CeWaFS – Ghana, Kamasa advocates for food security and the empowerment of rural women in agricultural value chains development. “In my community, women farmers face many challenges. They are the ones doing all the work. Once the man has ploughed the land, he has finished his work. It is now up to the women to sow, to make sure that everything goes well. And when the harvest comes, some of these men may sell everything and give nothing to these women,” she explains.

She gathers women farmers from various rural communities whom she trains in agricultural techniques, such as land management, crop rotation, fallowing, and how to use fertilizers, agro-chemicals, etc., in order to increase their agricultural production. “Often, these farmers spray pesticides on the crops and later on, when this leads to various consequences, they attribute it to superstition. That is why we educate them,”she explains. She also provides them with materials, protective equipments, inputs, fertilizers. To date, CeWaFS -Ghana has trained about 2,750 rural women, she says.

The NGO also encourages women farmers to cultivate new crops. In 2022, as a result of an increased demand for fresh vegetables in Ghana, the women of the NGO started growing vegetables (carrots, cabbages, etc.) that could yield significantly more profit. Additionally, it also trains women farmers on how to process their products to increase their incomes. “Since not all products are sold, processing is an additional market,”she says. She teaches them, in particular, how to make chilli powder, ginger, rosemary, garlic, etc. These spices are then packaged and sold, in addition to their harvests. From 78 women farmers at the beginning, the NGO has grown to 12,000 women farmers, including men who are smallholder farmers, to date. Among other things, it has allowed them to get access to land, inputs, etc.

But things had not always been easy, she recalls. She remembers, in particular, a village chief who challenged her, one day. “This village chief challenged me, saying, ‘I am a woman, what do I want to prove,’ while some men tried and failed. He gave me two plots of land to see what I could do. With 78 women, we planted what they had never planted before. The yield was so good that they even thought I had superpowers,” she says enthusiastically. Today, several communities offer her plots of land for free to ensure that she would return all the time.

A researcher in agriculture & conservation biology

In addition to her commitment to empowering women farmers, she is also a researcher in food security & climate and a specialist in conservation biology. Since 2019, she has been a member of the FAO Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition in charge of developing policies related to agriculture at the global level. In 2020, she was chosen for the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) – West Africa. In 2022, she also took part in the Mandela Washington Fellowship in the United States, a program of the American State Department focused on further honing the skills of young African leaders. At the end of 2022, she obtained a scholarship for a Master’s degree in “Sustainable Humanitarian Action” at the Universidad Catolica San Antonio de Murcia in Spain. Recently, she was also selected for the Clinton Global initiative in which she will soon participate. A program aiming to bring together world leaders to create and implement solutions to humanity’s most pressing problems.

Kamasa has received numerous awards and honours. In 2021 and 2022, she was awarded Ghana’s outstanding youth in agriculture of the year, ODIC Impact Challenge Top 30 under 30 Changemaker, Noble Missions Active Citizenship award, and won the African Queen of Energy Award in community leadership. Today, her ambition is to build a warehouse where farmers could store their crops to be able to sell them when prices rise; but also to lead these farmers go into value addition, and market their processed goods on global marketplaces.

Danielle Engolo