admin | April 7, 2019
Farmers, and especially women farmers, face many challenges in managing their maize crops. Rain before the crop is harvested or while it’s drying in the field, poor prices, lack of attention to quality standards, and difficulties with effectively storing maize are just some of the issues they face.
This drama highlights these challenges and offers practical solutions to resolve them. In the drama, maize farmers from different places settle in a small town in Ghana due to its wet climate. In spite of the good climate in Adensukurom, they are faced with new challenges that threaten their unity and trigger conflicts and selfishness amongst them.
Fuseina is a strong, hardworking, and resolute young woman who is determined to restore peace and unity to her community. With the help and advice of her friend Nadia, Fuseina and her friends travel to the next town to ask for help with their farming challenges. They visit Maanan, the best farmer in the town, to seek advice, and receive useful guidance from her and an extension officer. They learn about the right time to harvest their maize, how to dry their maize properly and keep it out of the rains, and how to work together as a team. The farmers return to Adensukurom to teach the rest of the community’s farmers what they have learned. They work together to restore oneness in their community and succeed in increasing the income from their farms.
You could use this drama as inspiration to produce a similar program on addressing post-harvest challenges in maize farming. Or you might choose to present the drama as part of your regular farmer program, using voice actors to represent the speakers.
You could follow the drama by interviewing farmers and other experts about how they handle these kinds of challenges in their maize crops. Make sure to ask them about methods that work, methods that don’t work, and methods that sometimes work, or work under particular conditions. Invite listeners to call-in or text-in with questions and comments.
Topics for discussion might include:
-
When is the best time to harvest maize to maintain good quality?
-
What are the different ways that farmers in a community can work together to market their maize and receive a good price?