Ga West municipality faces compounding issues in soil productivity, land degradation, livelihood loss, food security and waste management. Using strategies that source existing and proven practices with scientific analysis and methods, the project?s innovation is drawn from a composition of creative instruments to address known problems. Training and enabling local government agricultural extension officers and five farmers? groups in composting and sustainable soil management will boost their capability to increase yield and tackle fertility issues. Building the infrastructure and organizational capacity of a youth-operated waste collection and compost production will contribute to youth economic development, the availability of accessible organic fertilizer, soil fertility of local community farms and municipal waste management. The consortium has strong and extensive ties with existing organizations and projects implementing similar, though separate and contextually distinct, strategies. It will source their experiences coupled with its own expertise to build a strong model for future expansion.

Benefits of gender-sensitive reforestation schemes like Ghana?s Modified Taungya System (MTS) that combine trees and food crops are reduced after canopy closure, when farmers lose interest as food crops can no longer be grown. This project seeks to enhance food and income security for MTS/tree farmers after canopy closure by examining and building capacity on how three previously introduced shade-tolerant non-timber forest products can be successfully harvested, processed and marketed. It involves farmers, practitioners, policymakers, NGOs and value-chain actors in a stepwise collaborative learning approach including inception, joint implementation, and dissemination. Built on knowledge gaps identified by farmers and practitioners, this proposal contributes to the broader debate on landscape approaches that aim to integrally address food insecurity, deforestation, environmental degradation, and climate change. Deliverables include insights intro opportunities for improved production, processing and marketing and how continual learning can be institutionalised in farmer groups, communities of practice, and learning platforms.