Empowering The Vulnerable Karni Blind farmers

Blindness and poverty are strongly related, living in poverty is not just about lack of money, it can also mean feeling, isolated, powerless and discriminated against. However against all odds the blind population in Karni has managed through ADRA Ghana in its Funding Agency USAID reason above their disability, determined to overcome the challenges presented by their blindness they have strived to achieve equity and equality in their society.

Dr. Anthony Mainoo (Manager, Agriculture, and Food Security Projects ) 
March 21, 2023

Most Traditional notions of the blind seem to have a negative bend, the perceptions of majority of cited partners of the blind are thought of a poor dirty and hungry person depending on charity for survival. These perceptions perhaps stemming from the fact that majority of the visually impaired from that the cited come across are by the roadside begging for arms, indeed people who are blind are more vulnerable to social and cultural exclusion and do not have the same opportunities under German population to accrue assets and income. Karni is a village near Jirapa in the Jirapa/Lambussie District in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The village is located in one of the most deprived areas of the country, poverty in the area is manifested in several ways including unacceptably low household incomes and in such factors as unemployment, under employment, and lack of healthcare among others. What has perhaps worsened the situation in the village is the unusual large populace of visually impaired in the area.

The blind people in Karni came together and appeal to a ADRA Ghana for assistance to go into farming just as ADRA has done for the excited counterparts. At the rehabilitation centre at Karni, ADRA first took them through a series of training exercises both theoretical and practical for the challenges they intend to embark upon. 

Among other things they were taking through an overview of food security, the rule or impact the visually impaired has on agriculture, methods in land preparation and the visually impaired skills delivery system. 

Other topics treated during the initial training exercise also include soya cultivation and its importance, moringa and mango cultivation. The visually impaired in income generating activities especially dry season gardening, livestock, and tree planting. 

Raining and pegging is essential in planting, the first peg is the most important thing to the blind father. Once the farmer has been given the fundamental skills, he is now capable of producing his own crops, and these farmers have both individuals and collective farms and be able to attend to all. 

As part of their training the blind farmers of Karni have been taught to use their hands to guide them just as sighted people use their eyes. With regard to soybeans the thumb and the forefinger are used to measure the planting distance. 

Through ADRA Ghana I have acquired skills in farming, I have been trained how to move about and how to use the guideline. I have also been trained how to remember what I have been taught; whatever I’m doing I try to recollect what has been imparted to me. 

I was a farmer before becoming blind, I came to the rehabilitation centre for training and I was registered and taught how to use the hand to check if there’s no obstacle before using the hole. Like any other farmer we sometimes get wounded, if it happens, I go to the clinic and get some tetanus injection. As part of the ADRA Ghana and USAID client farmers, the Karni blind farmers are presented with a package.  

The Karni blind farmers in the upper west region 

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You were once farming before becoming blind the essence and rule that you are playing is telling us come back and pick up farming as a means of any on income and feeding your families your siblings and maybe pay for other health needs. Your role is also to increase your nutritional balance in your family and that of others. Your value or your role in the country in agriculture is highly noticed at the same time erasing the morale of a blind person or a visually impaired person, like people will say; look at the way this person who is even blind, I look at the way he is farming, look at the way he’s producing which gives you some kind of prestige and you feel proud and you said yes I know I am doing something in my community and for that matter in my district and for the nation as a whole. 


Severo Dapaalo, Training Officer, Upper West Region)

Soyabean can be planted in all the Agro-ecologies of Ghana with the exception of the high rainfall area in western region with high acidic soil. The time of planting is very important, this is because we time the planting such that harvesting of the soyabean coincide with the dry weather. This is in order for us to achieve high quality soyabean which is very important for food consumption as well as for the industry. “Anidaso” is the single largest variety that is planted throughout the whole of Ghana from South to the north because of its earliness. From our research we have seen that there are a number of ways that one could go about planting the soybean depending on the scale of production and the farmer’s circumstance. We can plant soybean by hill planting in holes, just as we plan for maize and beans or groundnuts. One could also drill and that is usually amenable with mechanised farming where you have a cattle that drills a small pharaoh through the soil and the soybean is dropped and planted. We have seen that hill planting gives us as much yield as in drilling and it is very feasible for the farmers especially those that are doing manual planting to adopt and our farmers are really adopting hill planting. 

Dr. Stella Ennin, Research Scientist CRI-CSIR 

I was a farmer before becoming blind, I came to the rehabilitation centre for training and I was registered and taught how to use the hand to check if there’s no obstacle before using the hole. Like any other farmer we sometimes get wounded, if it happens, I go to the clinic and get some tetanus injection.
Beneficiary
Through ADRA Ghana I have acquired skills in farming, I have been trained how to move about and how to use the guideline. I have also been trained how to remember what I have been taught; whatever I’m doing I try to recollect what has been imparted to me.
Beneficiary

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The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is a global humanitarian organization whose motto is Justice, Compassion, and Love. The Agency’s purpose is “to serve humanity so all may live as God intended.” ADRA Ghana belongs to the worldwide ADRA network, which delivers relief and development assistance to individuals, households, and communities in more than 118 supporting and implementing country offices—regardless of ethnicity, political affiliation, gender, or religious association. Having supported sustainable development for almost 40 years in Ghana, our on-the-ground approach allows immediate assistance in times of crisis and true partnership with the communities we serve. We deliver culturally relevant programs by partnering with local communities, organizations, and governments and building local capacity for sustainable change.

Based in Auckland, New Zealand, GoodOne Foods provides New Zealanders with quality, sustainable, ethically sourced products at realistic prices. The company sources coconut from Vietnam, soul cocoa and cocoa beans from the Solomon Islands, and cashews and peanuts from Ghana for its operations. Most importantly, products with high nutritional value contain no added sugar. In addition to paying a premium over market value for its products, Goodone also donates 100 percent of its proceeds to ADRA International, a partner in community transformation. GoodOne Foods purchases Raw Cashew Nuts (RCN) from the BAAT Project beneficiaries. The company has signed a contract with ADRA Ghana to buy 100 metric tons of good quality RCN from the BAAT Project farmers. GoodOne is paying premium prices over the market value for the nuts.

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