NGO to aid producers of handicraft in Upper East to improve income
Traditional basket weavers in the Upper East Region are to benefit from a Vertivera grass project that would supply straw, the raw material for local basket production and other handicraft.
Miss Vida Virginia Boyubia, Programme Manager of Trade Aid Integrated, said plans were far advanced between her organization and the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to implement the project.
She said Trade Aid, an NGO, which provides market linkages, business services, trade and agricultural policy advocacy had concluded preliminary works for the project to start.
She said the project would focus on both rain fed and irrigational farming to support producers whose main supply of the raw material presently comes from the south.
Miss Boyubia made this known at a stakeholders briefing in Bolgatanga on findings of a research conducted on the craft sector by volunteers of the Trade Aid Programme and supported by the International Citizen Service at the Department of International Development (DFID).
The research was conducted by groups of artisans in basket weaving, smock making, fabric and leather workers.
In connection with that, a project known as Integrated Community Empowerment Project (INCOME), supported by International Service, UK, would support producers of traditional handicrafts.
Mr Sean Cavell, leader of the research team said the project would improve producers’ household incomes through linkages to fair value chains for the next 12 months.
Mr Cavell said the project was in four phases of which phase one was the presentation of the findings of the research.
He said the three phases would harness the inputs from stakeholders and make recommendations to enable INCOME access funding opportunities to build capacity of the producers in the craft sector.
Present at the briefing were, the producers of traditional handicrafts such as smock weavers, basket weavers, leather workers and fabric weavers as well as disabled women producers.
Others included representatives from the Regional Coordinating Council and the Centre for National Culture.
Source: GNA