Alternative livelihood support for reducing poverty: snail project for kwaprow community in Cape Coast

Abstract

The critical importance of employment for sustained poverty reduction and curbing ruralurban migration necessitated this action research. It was embarked to introduce snail farming as alternative livelihood support for reducing poverty in the Kwaprow community at the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast. The participatory action research design was adopted. Ten perceived poor people were selected from the community with the assistance of the key informants and other participatory rural appraisal techniques. The results were compared and analyzed for emerging themes and patterns. From the research that was conducted, it could be realized that the nature of poverty in the Kwaprow community exists in terms of material deprivation, lack of voice and influence, low human and health development and vulnerability to shocks and disaster. The extent of poverty in the area could be said to be relatively high with indicators of poor housing facilities, poor drainage facilities, low employment, high household dependency ratio, poor road network, environmental pollution and low access to potable water. The causes of poverty were found to gender inequity, lack of access to financial capital for business and low access to land for farming activities