In the 2022 production season, Abdulai Yakubu from the Gushiegu District of Ghana’s Northern Region had a breakthrough: the 25-year-old smallholder farmer and member of the Saala-based Wumpini Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) successfully cultivated two acres of soybean instead of just one. 

In the seven years prior, he had only cultivated half an acre each of soybean and maize. Like many farmers in hard-to-reach communities in northern Ghana, a lack of financing prevented him from procuring improved seeds, fertilizer and tractor plowing services translating into low yields, reduced productivity, and limited incomes.  

To address this ongoing challenge, the USAID-supported Feed the Future Ghana Mobilizing Finance in Agriculture (MFA) Activity, in partnership with the Rural Development Fund (RDF), implemented a VSLA loan scheme to make affordable financing available to base-of-the-pyramid value chain actors who need small amounts of financing to enhance crop production and aggregation. The strategic partnership promotes financial inclusion for farmers like Yakubu in the formal banking sector and provides them with training in financial literacy and good agricultural practices.

 The first phase of the VSLA loan scheme included a disbursement of $28,409 to 304 agribusinesses in Ghana’s North and North East Regions meant to expand their farming and aggregation during the 2022 production season. Through this scheme, Yakubu received a loan of $87.25 that allowed him to pay for tractor plowing services on his two-acre farm and to purchase weedicide for his soybean crops.

 “For the first time in my seven-year farming career, I received a loan from a bank. Before, I depended on my savings, which were not sufficient to pay for inputs and tractor services,” Yakubu said. The financing enabled him to harvest 19 bags of soybean from his farm, generating $862.85 in income compared to just three bags the year before which fetched only $159.09. 

 At the end of the 2022 production season, members of the Wumpini VSLA successfully repaid their loans, including Yakubu, qualifying 21 members—six men and 15 women—for follow-up financing of $2,152.58 through the 2023 production season. That time round, Yakubu accessed a loan of $92.76 to expand his farm from two acres to five (two acres of soybean and three acres of maize). 

“The RDF-VSLA loan has increased my interest in agriculture. I never expected to cultivate a five-acre farm on my own, but the loan has made it possible. I am planning to expand my production in the future,” Yakubu said.

Thanks to the increased income from his newly expanded farm, Yakubu can now also contemplate pursuing a post-secondary education, something he could not do after finishing high school because of financial constraints.

This story was originally published by Palladium and was edited for alignment with the Missing Middle campaign.