The sun absolutely burned across the sky today. It has been more than two weeks since the last rain. I am settled here in Tongo, the capital of Talensi-Nabdam District, in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The millet is wilting a little more severely every day. When I wake at 5:30am I can hear the scrape of simple hoes against stone and sand.
Farming families are busy weeding from daybreak until the sun becomes too hot to bear. Women and young children accompany the men, in groups of four or five, bending over the soil and tearing up weeds as they move slowly from one end of the field to the other.
I can often be caught searching the sky anxiously on their behalf. Sometimes I spy clouds, and the wind picked up yesterday for a short time. My hopes were raised. But the heavy clouds were too high, and rain did not even really threaten to fall.
This is not the only concern of the farming community.
A few weeks ago, it was where to find money and the seed to be able to plant because the rains had started early. There were three good rains within a week at the beginning of May. Most farmers had not stored enough grain to complete planting, as well as feed their family until the new crop is harvested. Everyone was looking for money, additional labour and competing for scarce plowing services.and anyone with access to a plow and money for seed was working hard to get a quick start on the season. Those who could not afford to start early.
Although everyone has their eye on the clouds, there is another major event happening. The new Chief of Tongo has been enskinned (sp) and returned from his travels. We visited the palace to see the celebrations. These traditional dancers and drummers performed in groups moving around the palace grounds.
I have a lot of work ahead of me, assisting MOFA’s Extension Staff in their efforts to support farmer groups. I still believe, as MOFA does, that through improved farming practices farmers can see increased profits, and farming families can invest in new ways to gain income and create opportunities for themselves and their children.
But I have to say that the past few weeks have dampened my initial enthusiasms with a solid dose of realism. Farming is hard work, and farmers are the hardest working people I think I have ever met. The more time I spend in the field with MOFA’s Extension Agents, the more clear it becomes to me that Farmers operate in an environment where the future is difficult to predict.
An AEA that I worked with last week told me that they have a saying here, that “A man working at an impossible task may work very hard and achieve nothing at all. People will not see his work and will call him a fool or a lazy man.”
Sometimes farming seems like an impossible but necessary task for farmers here in Tongo. But when you look deeper it becomes clear that success just comes in small doses, and is deeply appreciated when it arrives.
I’m hoping to be a part of some of this small success. We are all praying for rain.
My guides for the day: John and Emmanuel
2 Comments
May 30, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Hey Sarah,
It’s good to hear from you. I’ll have to get in contact with you soon.
August 28, 2007 at 6:32 am
HEJ