In the 21^st century, the world is still struggle with the problem of poverty and inequality in societies. Whilst development is needed to reduce poverty, development has no meaning if it does not increase income and the wellbeing of the poor. It is estimated that 1.4 billion people live on less than US$1.25/day and many of these people live in the developing world. In Ghana for instance, about 28.5% of the population live bellow the poverty line of US$1.25 (GPRSP, 2007). Many of poor live in the rural areas of the country where the main economic is farming.

Having seen the enormity of the of poverty situation in the rural areas, the governments with the help of its development partners have introduced several interventions to reduce poverty in the rural Ghana. Among them are: Rural development programme which seeks to improve infrastructure such as rood, extension of electricity, water supply among others.   Again, Agriculture Sector Improvement Programme was launched to boast agriculture production in the rural areas. Despite the introduction of these and many other policy interventions, the poverty situation is still high among the rural population. It must be noted that many of the interventions failed to address the fundamental question of the ‘poor’ abundant resources which is land and labour

Land is one of the main resources available to the rural poor. In most rural communities in Ghana, land is mostly collectively owned by families. Each member of the family or clan can have access to a piece of land after going through the traditional ways of land acquisition. After acquiring the piece of land, the problem many farmers encounter is how to get equipments and input to prepare the land and cultivate their crops.  Another most important resource for the rural poor is his or her labour. With a little ‘’push’’ people are ready to use their labour to till the land for productivity.

If we are to reduce poverty, then some of the development interventions in rural communities in Ghana should be redirected towards provision of farm input and provision of on field training for farmers.  This will not only help to increase farmer’s productivity but will go a long way to boost their income levels.  

 This is exactly what Ashanti Development UK is doing with the farmers of Bimma, a farming community in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The farmers in the village provide their own land, whilst the charity provides farm input such as tool/equipment, seeds, agro chemicals, fertilizers among others. These inputs are then quantified in money terms using the prevailing market prices. The farmers pay back the cost of the input after they have sold the produce. In addition to this, Ashanti Development UK in conjunction with the area agriculture extension officers provides free training to the farmers. Almost all the labour work in the farms is done by the farmers and their family.

The introduction of the programme has led to substantial increase in the production of crops such as carrot, tomatoes, green pepper, corn, cassava, groundnut and many others.  It has also led to increase in income for both farmers and market women in the village.

Baseline survey is one of the tools use to collect data and information about villages before any development work can take place. During this process, several meetings are held in the community where problems are identified and solution proposed. During such meetings, ideas are solicited from individuals and groups within the village. Groups such as males, females, unit committees, water & sanitation committee, chief and elders, religious bodies etc are met separately. Separate meeting are held for these different group to enable them participate freely in the process and also provide information without fear of victimisation from any group. For instance in our meeting with women at Mpantuase village in Ashanti region of Ghana, one lady complained about phenomenon of wife beating by some men in the village. This information did not come up when the team met the entire community in the previous week.   The information gathered from these group meeting is then presented at the general community meetings. At these meetings, sanitation strategy can be drawn for the village base on the finding from the group meetings. Also at these general community meetings, development needs can be prioritised through voting by the members. Issues such days in the week when communal labour could be done and the work to be done by different groups within the community could also be sorted out during such meetings. Many village development initiatives have failed because community members were not consulted or involve in the planning and implementation of such programmes.   Ashanti Development UK have been successful in rural Ghana where it operate because of it involvement of the community members in its village development programmes