Ghana and Senegal are launching a one-year pilot programme to test low-carbon agricultural technologies for women smallholder farmers, aiming to improve productivity, reduce costs, and increase rural incomes.
The West Africa Aggregator Platform, backed by the Shell Foundation and Startup Discovery School, targets 200,000 women farmers by 2030. The initiative seeks to raise participating farmers’ incomes by at least 20 percent while promoting climate-smart practices.
The pilot will focus on lowering barriers to access for women, who make up a large share of the region’s agricultural workforce but face limited access to finance, mechanisation, and inputs. By bundling technologies with innovative delivery models, the programme aims to cut transaction costs and improve adoption rates.
Key technologies under trial include solar-powered irrigation, climate-smart processing and storage tools, and digital extension services, designed to boost yields and reduce post-harvest losses while lowering environmental impact.
The programme aligns with broader regional efforts to modernise agriculture, enhance resilience to climate risks, and attract private investment into rural markets. Officials and analysts say targeted support for women farmers is critical, as they contribute disproportionately to food production but often lack decision-making power over farm resources.
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“This is not just a social initiative — it is an economic strategy,” said a Shell Foundation representative. “Investing in women smallholders drives productivity, increases output, and strengthens local value chains, which in turn stimulates regional markets.”
Ghana and Senegal are emerging leaders in climate-smart agriculture adoption in West Africa, and both governments have prioritised technology-driven interventions to meet rising domestic and export demand for staple crops.
By testing new delivery models in the pilot, organisers hope to attract private sector and impact investors to scale proven solutions, demonstrating that sustainable, low-carbon farm technologies can be commercially viable while addressing climate and food security challenges.
Experts say adoption of low-carbon tools can reduce input costs, improve operational efficiency, and make farms more resilient to erratic rainfall and rising temperatures — factors that increasingly affect West African agricultural productivity.
The West Africa Aggregator Platform also reflects a broader trend of combining philanthropy, technology hubs, and private enterprise to modernise African agriculture, particularly for underserved smallholder communities.
If successful, the pilot could be scaled to other countries in the region, offering a model for integrating low-carbon technologies into smallholder farming systems and linking adoption to measurable economic outcomes.
The programme is part of a growing recognition that women’s participation in modern agriculture is both a development and a business imperative, with implications for rural economies, national food security, and regional trade.
