In collaboration with Northern Widows Agricultural Foundation & Garden Hub

Report on Tree Planting Project, 2023

By: Baba Abdulai (CAPI Executive Secretary and Farmer)

Contact: +233247645871

Email: babaabdulai@capi.org.uk

BACKGROUND
In April 2023, CAPI initiated a collaborative project with the Northern Widows Agricultural Foundation. The project aimed at providing mango tree seedlings to 30 widows in Savelugu, Tolon, Sagnerigu and Kumbungu Districts. The project was partly inspired by a peculiar problem identified by CAPI through its previous experiences. CAPI had discovered over time that most people have interest in plating trees but lack practical knowledge/skills on how to plant and care for them. CAPI therefore initiated this project with the following objectives.

OBJECTIVES

To provide the widows with an economically viable variety of mango for food security and income generation.
- High fruiting ability
- Less fibrous fruits
- Better taste fruits
- Bigger-sized fruits.

To plant the seedlings in the month of June in commemoration of, and in support of the “Green Ghana Project”.
To provide technical expertise on tree planting and caring to the beneficiaries and their families.
To observe the performance of the seedlings for possible introduction of other projects in the future.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BENEFICIARIES

Interest of beneficiary to own or have a tree in their home.
Availability of land in beneficiaries’ households for planting one or two trees.
Ability of beneficiary to provide good fencing and care for the tree (watering, weeding, etc).

For the purpose of the project, CAPI contracted Garden Hub, a horticulture company, to nurse the preferred mango variety in advance. CAPI also trained staff of NWAF on preparation of the pits/beds using fowl droppings and composting material. The staff of NWAF in turn went to the homes of the various beneficiaries and prepared the pits in advance.

Germination of the seedlings was not good enough but CAPI still went ahead to start the transplanting.

On 28^th May the first of the seedlings was transplanted at Tarikpaa community in the Savelugu Municipality. The remaining trees were subsequently transplanted in August and September due to the poor germination and resource constraints. Additional seedlings of the same variety were subsequently purchased to ensure that all beneficiaries received their trees. Below is a summary of the planting dates.

Date	Community	District	No. of beneficiaries
28/05/2023	Tarikpaa	Savelugu	1
06/08/2023	Nyankpal-Gbulahgu	Tolon	3
19/08/2023	Tolon-Gbrimah	Tolon	3
19/08/2023	Gbriman-Tiboagu	Tolon	3
19/08/2023	Kpalgung	Tolon	1
09/09/2023	Boagkurugu	Sagnerigu	3
09/09/2023	Langa	Savelugu	2
10/09/2023	Moaglaa	Savelugu	3
10/09/2023	Zugu-Yizhagu	Savelugu	2
10/09/2023	Tarikpaa	Savelugu	2
16/09/2023	Voggu-Tiring	Kumbungu	3
16/09/2023	Voggu-Kushibo	Kumbungu	2
16/09/2023	Saakuba	Kumbungu	2

S U M M A R Y
No. of days	Communities	Districts	No. of beneficiaries	No. of seedlings
14	13	4	32	32

Additional non-target beneficiaries			10	16

Lessons learned

A lot of non-target beneficiaries seem to be interested in the mango seedlings. Many individuals approached CAPI and requested the mango seedlings (some even wanted to buy the seedlings from CAPI). A total of 10 individuals were eventually given 16 of mango tree seedlings even though they were not originally target beneficiaries of the project.