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He works on his five acre farm with his daughter Joan Badasu in a small town near Ho in the Volta region of Ghana. Badasu is an indirect beneficiary of an AGRA grant given to Ben Kemetse, the CEO of M&B seeds.
Before Badasu met Kemetse, he had toiled the land for over 25 years planting maize. After years of hard work, he only harvested just enough to feed his family.
“In those days I found it very difficult to look after my household,” he says with a very serious demeanor. “But when I met with Ben and I started this one, I have seen that there is a big change.
Days that he does not have money to pay his children’s school fees he falls on Kemetse to loan him some money which is pays back after harvesting and still has enough for his family’s upkeep.
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He has been able to educate all three of his children - a feat which looked impossible six years ago. Two are trained teachers and one is in senior high school.
Badasu is happy his children have a future because of farming. Convincing Badasu to try seed farming was easy. He needed to try something new since his life had seen no improvement from planting maize for consumption.
“It did not take me that long when he actually told me. I did it the first time and tried it again the second time, I saw that what I was getting was good because I could take care of my children.”
Previously he harvested eight bags of maize from an acre of land. Now he reaps 16 bags from the same acre of land.
Badasu like other out grower farmers working with M&B farms receives the seed variety from Kemetse for free. Their job is to multiply those seeds and sell them back to M&B farms. The seeds are then processed and packaged by M&B farms for sale to other farmers who plant for consumption.
Badasu’s success is not just limited to money in his pocket. He has become a better farmer. He knows how and when to apply fertilizer. He also knows how to plant his maize for a bountiful harvest.
His success has attracted his wife and children to farming. His wife now has an acre of land dedicated to farming seeds. His children now also want to have a bite of what has increased their father’s fortune.
“At first, we have been saying that after completing our school we would not involve ourselves in the farming,” says Joan Badasu, Gabriel’s 27-year-old daughter. “But now we have been asking him to plant one acre for us- this seed farm, so that we can be getting the money he is also getting.”
Badasu has gained respect in his community. No one expected a poor farmer like him to educate three children. But he is no longer poor, not since he found seed planting six years ago. Now, he finds “there are people who want to join me in the project.”
By: Betty Kankam-Boadu