Field Study Ghana 2005

Host Partner(s): College of Agriculture and natural resources (CANR), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)

Other Partners: Centre for Biodiversity, Utilisation and Development (CBUD) and the Atiwa Rural Bank

Topic: Micro-credit as an instrument to promote indigenous food resources in Ghana.

Location: Abomosu, Eastern Region, Ghana

ICRA Working Document Series number: 123

Background: CBUD and the Atiwa Rural Bank (ARB) are in the first phase (2003-2005) of a project that extends credit facilities to farmers at Abomosu who prodice and sell snails. It is anticipated that a second phase will follow soon.

Objectives: To analyse and document how effective, efficient and accessible the CBUD/ARB pilot micro-credit scheme is in contributing to sustainable production, management and marketing of snails by farmers with limited resources.

Outputs:

Team Members:

Name	Nationality	Institute	Discipline
Charles Adu-Anning	Ghana	KNUST	Systems Ecology
Laura Atuah	Ghana	KNUST	Floriculture
Stephen Duku	Ghana	KNUST	Agronomy
Sampson E. Edusah	Ghana	BIRD/KNUST	Development Economy
Simon Fialor	Ghana	KNUST	Agricultural Economy
Samuel Sey	Ghana	CBUD/KNUST	Marketing

Reviewer: Juan Ceballos-Müller (Germany), ICRA, AP Coordinator

ABSTRACT:This study was undertaken by a team of six staff members of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology as part of their learning process in Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) procedures.

The study analysed the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of a pilot micro-credit scheme for thirty snail rearing farmers promoted by the Centre for Biodiversity, Utilisation and Development (CBUD) and the Atiwa Rural Bank at Abomosu in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Based on its analysis of the pilot micro-credit scheme, the team determined that the scheme is effective in terms of survival rate, repayment rate and saving behaviour, efficient in terms of percentage of participating farmers still in snail farming, improved knowledge on snail production and loan repayment from proceeds of snails. The micro-credit scheme is, however, not efficient in terms of proximity of the bank to the beneficiaries and delay in the payment of sale proceeds, restricted in its outreach to farmers producing and marketing snails, not sustainable in terms of current marketing arrangements put in place by CBUD and not sustainable if CBUD’s donor pulls out and the Atiwa Rural Banks doesn’t take it up.

KEY WORDS: Ghana, micro-credits, snails

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