Ghana Agriculture Program
Support for a Village Outside of Kumasi:
Agricultural and Economic Development in Barikuma
The University of Utah has partnered with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, to support the council members of a local village in their plan to develop between 7-10 acres of unused village land into an orange grove. The sale of these oranges would supply the village with a much needed source of income.
The village was not seeking a donation to help start this project. Instead, they were struggling with the challenge of securing a loan to cover start-up and early maintenance costs associated with the grove. In January 2007, a business man from Utah was asked to work with the village, under the auspices of the U of U, to help the village in securing financing.
In order to identify the issues which would be critical to the success and sustainability of the project and to garner long term support in Ghana, we turned to the faculty of Agriculture at KNUST. They identified the need to establish a cooperative organization to equitably distribute the proceeds from the sale of the oranges to the members of the village who participated in the project.
The project is now in its early stages. The cooperative organization is being set up. KNUST undergraduate and graduate students have authored a Market Analysis report and a Feasibility Report on the Establishment of a Citrus Plantation. Both studies overwhelmingly conclude that this project makes economic sense for the village and both reports will be used when the village goes to a local bank to secure the needed financing.
If successful, we hope this could model can be used with many other villages.
Program Director
Brian Y. Rivette is the President and Chief Operating Officer of A2D, L.P., an intellectual property licensing firm based in Los Angeles. He resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. A2D, L.P. has licensed the technology in it’s portfolio of telecommunications patents to over 250 of the nation’s largest and most technologically sophisticated companies. Mr. Rivette helped found the company in 1994. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Marketing and Government Affairs for Call Interactive, a joint venture of AT&T and American Express Information Services Corp. Mr. Rivette has held a number of sales and marketing positions in the telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries. He is an avid jogger who enjoys traveling overseas, editing video and oil painting. Since February 2007, Mr. Rivette has been working with a small village in West Africa to support their economic development efforts.
