Amaati Group (previously Unique Quality Product Enterprise)

Empowering rural women through farming indigenous Fonio grains
2016 SAG-SEED Awards; SWITCH-Africa Green
Sustainable Agriculture
Tamale
Ghana

Amaati Group (previously Unique Quality Product Enterprise) trains marginalised women suppliers in agronomic practices to farm Fonio, an indigenous grain that has low water requirements and can withstand adverse weather conditions. The enterprise dries, de-husks, packages, stores and markets Fonio cereal products for household consumption.

The company assists its suppliers with acquiring land for cultivation and buying the harvested grain at guaranteed prices. It currently produces 15,000 kg of Fonio weekly, and promotes production, sales and consumption of Fonio by improving post-harvest processing, developing marketing strategies and raising product awareness.

Eco-Inclusive Impacts
Amaati Group (previously Unique Quality Product Enterprise) combines women empowerment with reclamation of degraded soils, offering sustainable livelihood opportunities for previously landless rural women through farming climate-resilient Fonio, while improving household nutrition and food security.
  • Empowering 500 landless women to cultivate Fonio on 1-1.5 ha of land under zero tillage and generate an annual income of USD 1,200/farmer.
  • Increasing public awareness of Fonio as a nutritious crop and income source in 3 farming districts in the Northern region by the end of 2017.
  • Improving household nutrition and food security.
  • Transforming 500ha of degraded land and using organic compost, improving soil rehabilitation and sustainable land management by the end of 2017.
  • Avoiding the use of chemical fertilisers to prevent soil leaching.
  • Reducing the emission of methane by converting waste into organic compost.

  • Creating a new agricultural value chain from neglected indigenous crops on formerly degraded land.
  • Generating annual gross revenue of USD 250,000.
  • Providing permanent employment for 23 people.

 

 

Partners

Amaati Group (previously Unique Quality Product Enterprise) represents the first business in Ghana that adds value to Fonio, a neglected, indigenous and nutritious cereal crop that grows well on unfertilised marginal land. The company mobilises and supports rural women to cultivate Fonio, processes and markets the products.

Unique Quality Product Enterprise Limited purchases, processes and stores the raw Fonio, mobilizes capital, markets products, ensures payments and supervises quality controls.

Pagsung Women Association mobilises women, provides premises for processing, storage and packaging and provides the link between business and donators.

The Food and Science Department of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology carries out food and research activities and ensures that product quality and Ghanaian food standards are met.