Solar Irrigation System to Maximize Vegetable Access and Employment.

Dear Donor,

My name is Olivia Kipo, founder of Kobaa-Ok Enterprise.

Overview of Kobaa-Ok Enterprise

Kobaa-Ok enterprise is an accessible rural farming business that: i) provides rural and urban communities with healthy organic vegetables by recycling food waste into compost for farming ii) serves as an interactive platform for promoting local sustainable lifestyles among rural farmers. At Kobaa-Ok, we cultivate vegetables such as cabbage, green pepper, tomatoes, pepper, and cucumber throughout the year under hygienic conditions and make them available and accessible to both rural and urban folks.

Why We Do What We Do

This is what Diana from Kobaa Says :

“I grew up in a rural community in Wa West District of the Upper West region of Ghana, I became a victim of school dropout due to challenging economic conditions at home. I was not the only one whose future looked blurred but I was determined to stop the vicious cycle of poverty so I fled to Accra (The capital city of Ghana) with three other teenage girls to work as a ‘Kayaye’ (head pottering) and earn money to support my siblings and cater for my poor parents who depended solely on the rainy season for farming. My parents were peasant farmers who were into the cultivation of maize and groundnut in the rainy season and could barely sustain themselves through the farm produce.

My dad and other farmers often struggled to grow other crops, especially vegetables due to the prolonged dry season, this led to a high rate of malnutrition (40%) among people in my community, especially pregnant women and children since we were prone to eating more cereals and grains due to our inaccessibility to vegetables.

The inability of farmers to farm all year round meant that during the dry season, farmers would have to rely on cutting down trees for charcoal, traveling to southern Ghana to involve in 'Kayaye' (head pottering), Illegal mining, etc for survival.

This situation discouraged some farmers from continuing agricultural activities in rural areas, leading to low incomes and poverty. As a result of the limited income opportunities, my friends and I had to migrate to southern Ghana to seek better opportunities to take care of our families.

Life in Accra was more miserable than anticipated since we had no place to stay, we were sexually abused severely by street men. Unfortunately, two of the girls I went with got pregnant. As fate will have it, I survived the street by meeting a good Samaritan who saw my determination to succeed and came to my rescue."

Diana’s story is not an isolated one. This is the plight of many young people in Northern Ghana as they migrate from the rural communities to Urban areas in search of opportunities which in most cases are non-existent.

People like Diana and her friends inspire us at Kobaa to make vegetables accessible to both rural and urban folks whiles creating employment opportunities for young people throughout the year.

Currently, Diana works at Kobaa-Ok Enterprise which enables her to generate sustainable income to cater for herself and her siblings while furthering her education.

Why we need your support

We currently need your support to install a solar irrigation system and sprinklers for a 20-acre land to aid us in cultivating vegetables to achieve our goal of making hygienic vegetables accessible to all.

Your support will help us create direct jobs for 20 young people like Diana if we successfully install the irrigation system and maximize production.

With your support other farmers can also irrigate their crops through our vegetable out-grower system, thereby helping reduce unemployment and food insecurity.

Your support means a lot and we will help change the lives of many. No amount is small.

And don't forget to share this link! Please Get your family, friends, or colleagues join us to achieve this goal!

#togetherwecan