Trust Link Agro Trading produces and aggregates maize, soybean and groundnut. The company won an award for advancing gender equity in the USAID ADVANCE project in 2017. Trust Link Agro Trading provides its out-growers with inputs and ploughing and threshing services at the appropriate times. The organisation works with 2,092 smallholder farmers (of which 68% are women) across five districts, with each farmer working an average of 5 acres. The company joined the MADE programme in 2018 and since then has aggregated 42,950 MT of maize.
MADE interventions
- Recruited, trained and deployed five Farm Enterprise Advisors (FEAs) to support smallholder farmers on good agricultural practices.
- Facilitated tractor purchases and links with tractor service providers.
- Established demonstration fields for smallholder farmers to receive training in good agronomic practice.
- Facilitated relationships with other MADE partners – Agrisolve Ghana and the Ghana Poultry Farmers Association – which provided a wider market for selling produce.
Impacts
- Increased smallholder outreach from 900 to 2,092 between 2018 and 2020.
- Increased access of smallholder farmers to quality inputs on credit, and to markets for the sale of their produce.
- Increased understanding of good agricultural practices, proper application of agro-inputs, land preparation and planting.
- Improved financial forecasting and planning for smallholders.
- Increased yields for smallholders from 11 to 18 bags (50 kg) of maize per acre, through the introduction of hybrid seed and the proper application of agro-inputs.
