Farmers as Guardians: Conserving Ghana's Minor Crops

Oct 24, 2024

Ghana’s rich agrobiodiversity is increasingly threatened by the decreasing use of traditional minor crops, which are becoming ‘neglect and underutilization species’. These crops – essential for rural livelihoods and food security – face genetic erosion and a lack of conservation.

To address this, a pilot project has been launched to establish a community see bank in Ghana, co-led by the NUS Network of Ghana and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and supported by the Netherlands Embassy in Ghana. The initiative aims to preserve local crop varieties, promote farmer cooperation, and ensure the long-term sustainability of agricultural biodiversity.

The pilot community seedbank has been established in Adawso, where farmers are actively involved in managing and conserving seeds from their fields.

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Border View Farms is a mid-sized family farm that sits on the Ohio-Michigan border. My name is Nathan. I make and edit all of the videos posted here. I farm with my dad, Mark and uncle, Phil. Our part-time employee, Brock, also helps with the filming. 1980 was our first year in Waldron where our main farm is now. Since then we have grown the operation from just a couple hundred acres to over 3,000. Watch my 500th video for a history of our farm I filmed with my dad.

I started making these videos in the fall of 2019 as a way to help show what I do on a daily basis as a farmer. Agriculture is different from any other industry and I believe the more people that are showing their small piece of agriculture, helps to build our story. We face unique challenges and stressful situations but have some of the most rewarding payoffs in the end. I get to spend everyday doing what I love, raising my kids on the farm, and trying to push our farm to be better every year. I hope that I can address questions or concerns that you might have about farms and agriculture.