Kwabena Owusu has farmed cassava near Juapong for most of his adult life. For years, the routine was the same: plant, weed, harvest — and then wait anxiously for a buyer. "The middlemen knew we had no choice," he recalls. "When the cassava is ready, it cannot wait. Whatever price they mentioned, we took it. Some seasons, part of my harvest simply rotted on the farm."
Two seasons ago, Kwabena signed up for Ahodwo Farms' Cassava for Cash Guarantee scheme — our in-house out-grower programme that now supports more than 850 out-grower farmers on about 2,000 acres. The scheme changed three things at once for him: the tractor came to plough his land at no cost, a cash advance covered labour and inputs at planting time, and — most importantly — he knew the exact price his cassava would fetch before he put a single cutting in the ground.
"The guaranteed price changed how I sleep," Kwabena says with a laugh. "I could calculate from day one what the farm would bring. No begging buyers, no watching cassava spoil. Ahodwo Farms' truck comes to the farm gate."
With predictable income, Kwabena did what good businesspeople do: he reinvested. Three acres became five, and this season he is cultivating seven, employing two young men from his village to help. His earnings have paid school fees, re-roofed the family house, and started a small savings account for a maize venture his wife manages.
Kwabena's story is exactly why the scheme exists. Cassava is a crop that women, men and young people can grow without heavy capital — what farmers lack is not skill but a fair, reliable market. By guaranteeing purchase at pre-agreed prices, we take the market risk off the farmer's shoulders while securing the raw material our factory needs to meet gari demand.
If you farm — or have land — in or around the North Tongu district and would like to join the Cassava for Cash Guarantee scheme, contact our Out-Grower Coordinator through the Contact page or visit us at Juapong. Like Kwabena, your next season could look very different.
