Case Study Service Delivery Gender Ghana Rice
Gender

Tamanaa Company Limited: Building an Inclusive Service Delivery Model for Rice Production in Northern Ghana

English
French
Spanish
24 Nov 2025 • 5 minutes read

Summary

Tamanaa Company Limited, a grains processor in Northern Ghana, embarked on a project to optimise its rice mill and empower the community through gender-inclusive practices. Key initiatives included women-operated rice parboiling centres, youth-led spray services for rice farmers, and working with community leaders to secure women’s land access. The project engaged approximately 4,000 smallholder farmers (SHFs), 50% of whom were women, each cultivating an average of 2 acres of paddy rice. As a result, Tamanaa achieved improved rice quality, boosted rice sourcing from 11,200 to 98,000 MT annually, and increased SHF productivity from 3.5 to 7.0 MT per hectare. The project also helped raise farmer incomes, create jobs, and enhance women’s participation in the rice supply chain.

How Does Tamanaa Drive GTBMs?

To address the root causes of gender inequality and support the implementation of its GTBM, Tamanaa implemented the following gender interventions across the key components:

1. Gender Strategy

  • Tamanaa promoted inclusivity by engaging 50% women farmers in its supply chain, incorporating 1,500 women in the parboiling centres, and supporting the establishment of 32 women savings and loan associations (VSLAs).
  • The company engaged local youth in spraying groups, providing upskilling and job opportunities to those who might otherwise migrate.

2. Data Collection

  • Tamanaa employed gender-disaggregated data collection to measure and monitor farmer reach, access to services, yields, and procurement. 

3. Inclusive Workplace

  • Women were engaged not just in farming but also in parboiling activities, paddy aggregation, and rice milling for Tamanaa and other suppliers. This approach ensured that women played a key role across the supply chain, challenging traditional gender roles and promoting a more equitable distribution of economic opportunities.

4. Inclusive Consultation

  • In partnership with traditional community leaders and sub-chiefs, Tamanaa facilitated the release and long-term security of farmland for women. Community members began to support women's access to land after observing improvements in food security resulting from their participation in farming. Through community sensitisation and lobbying activities, Tamanaa was able to break down the cultural barriers that previously restricted women’s land access.

5. Adaptation for Inclusion 

  • The parboiling centres (established to increase rice quality), empowered women by providing them with the tools, equipment, and logistics needed to efficiently run their operations. This strategy created job opportunities for women and strengthened their roles in the rice value chain.
  • The company recruited, trained, and equipped local youth to form spraying groups, linking them with suppliers of high-quality agrochemicals. This expanded the service offering to rice farmers.

To better articulate the gender interventions above, Tamanaa implemented the innovative women-run parboiling centres (linked to VSLAs) and youth-led spraying groups, as shown below.

Unnamed 3
  1. Tamanaa identifies and recruits parboiler women from the community and establishes the parboiling centres.
  2. The company identifies and recruits youth from the community to partake in the spraying groups
  3. The company identifies agrochemical providers and reaches agreements with them to supply the spraying groups.
  4. The spraying groups provide spraying services to Tamanaa’s rice farmers at a fee.
  5. The company provides other services to its rice farmers and offtakes paddy.
  6. Tamanaa supplies paddy to its parboiling centres and offtakes parboiled rice.
  7. Part of the revenues of the parboiling centres are distributed to the respective women VSLA groups. 

Achievements Made

Tamanaa achieved significant outcomes at both the company (business case) and farm levels (impact case). These results stemmed from key interventions, including the innovations mentioned above, along with other general components of the company’s business model.

Business Case

  • Better sourcing: Owing to the series of interventions in its business models (and despite climatic challenges), Tamanaa increased its procurement capacity from 11,200 MT to 98,000 MT annually.
  • Improved processing: As Tamanaa nearly increased its paddy sourcing ninefold, the company's milling efficiency improved from 53% to 66%, making more efficient use of its existing infrastructure.
  • Reduced risks: Tamanaa has seen a 98% recovery rate of input loans and reduced side-selling from women farmers. The company also reported that women farmers supplied better-quality rice than their male counterparts.

Impact Case

  • Increased empowerment: The establishment and expansion of women-operated parboiling centres empowered 1,500 women, providing them with job opportunities, greater income access, and improved rice quality for their households.
  • Increased financial capacities: Through participation in 32 women-only VSLAs and financial literacy training, women from the communities saw an improvement in their financial capabilities.
  • More job opportunities: By establishing spraying groups and linking them with agrochemical providers, 50 youth from the communities gained independence in service provision, earning fees directly from rice farmers.
  • Increased productivity: By accessing improved services (e.g., training, better inputs, mechanisation), both women and men SHFs doubled their productivity, increasing from 3.5 to 7.0 MT per hectare.

Some outcomes of the impact case at farm level are illustrated in the chart below. It shows the changes experienced by women farmers working with Tamanaa over a 3-year period of commercial engagement. These changes highlight improvements in several areas, including (a) increased access to mechanisation, quality inputs, and finance, (b) higher crop production and sales, (c) improved ability to manage climate challenges, and (d) reduced crop losses.

Changes experienced by women farmers

Unnamed 4

The chart above illustrates the changes reported by 307 women farmers working with Tamanaa over a 3-year period, across various performance categories at farm level. These include improvements in crop production and sales, climate resilience, and access to services. It is important to note that a reduction in crop losses is considered a positive outcome.  

Tips for Replication of GTBM Components

Context

  • The implementation of parboiling centres is most effective in contexts where paddy has low moisture levels or where there is strong market demand for high-moisture rice.
  • Ensuring access to farmland is crucial, and this can be achieved through negotiations with landowners, such as community leaders or sub-chiefs.

Best Practices

  • The direct involvement of the company’s management team with communities (rather than solely relying on a gender team) is key to improving women’s access to resources for parboiling and farming processes.
  • Briquettes made from rice husk, a by-product of rice processing, offer a more environmentally friendly fuel source for the parboiling process compared to firewood.
  • The company should engage with local leaders, authorities, and landowners to facilitate the long-term release of land for women’s commercial farming.
  • Recruiting parboiler women and women farmers through existing women leaders and extension officers can be more effective in encouraging their participation.
  • A FMIS enables the company to effectively manage gender-disaggregated farmer data, allowing for performance monitoring, tracking of needs, and tailoring services to the specific conditions of parboiler women and women farmers.

Enabling Conditions

  • Company- or community-owned infrastructure, transportation logistics (e.g., tricycles to transport paddy from parboiling centres to the milling factory), and equipment must be in place to effectively implement the parboiling centres.
  • If required by local gender norms, the company should ensure that community leaders, husbands, and/or other male family members provide consent and support, as this will help integrate women into parboiling centres and farming activities.
  • Agrochemicals must be locally available, ideally through local suppliers, to support the formation of spraying groups and ensure the affordability of necessary inputs.

Outstanding Risks and Challenges 

  • Companies may face limited access to working capital, as financial institutions view smallholder farming as risky, which can hinder the implementation of gender interventions, including the operation of parboiling centres.
  • Cultural norms may prevent women from accessing services (e.g., finance, mechanisation, labour) outside their communities; the absence of local providers for these services may limit the effectiveness of gender interventions like parboiling centres.
  • Parboiling centres may become overly reliant on the company's support, restricting their scalability and financial sustainability.
  • Climate and environmental risks (e.g., erratic rainfall, pest infestations) are constant threats to farmers and parboiling centres. As women farmers are generally more vulnerable, they are often more impacted by these risks.