Jordan here: I wrote this little blurb for our Ghana newsletter, and thought I would also share it with you.  It’s a little of my reflection of probably my biggest project here.
With the help of a SPA grant and food security seed grant, I helped promote and expand a small and unorganized dry season gardening program in my village.  We use a dam that was dug but not furnished with proper irrigation canals for proper dry season gardening.  So with water pumps and hand-dug channels, water is pushed to different areas and used to irrigate mostly bananas, plantains, and a handful of mangoes.  Very few people with access to this irrigation were taking advantage of it to produce nutritious vegetables.  This was due to the hard work required to do gardening on a large scale, the cost of fuel for the pump, cost of seeds, and animals destroying anything they can reach.  Hence tomatoes, cabbage, okra, green peppers, and carrots are seldom available to my village.  If one could find them, they tend to be expensive. 
This grant sponsored proper fencing, piping for the water pump, tools, and the materials to build a shade area for tree nursing.  This project isn’t a raving success, since very few people have actually come to use the area despite giving access to protected land, a water pump, water tanks, tools, seeds, and cow manure for fertilizer (essentially everything you need to have a dry season garden).  However, it is still a success for food security in my village for several reasons.  The trickle-down effect of producing 10 basins of tomatoes can be quite impressive: The producers earn a profit from selling to “roamers” (people selling small batches of things around the village).  These roamers in turn earn money through the marginal profit made from each small batch sold.  Then since there is a greater supply, all buyers can enjoy a tiny dip in price, or perhaps a couple extra tomatoes to entice their business.  All of these increase the access pillar by having more money to buy nutritious food.  In addition, there is of course an increase in availability since more nutritious food is available right in the village.  With less travel, the tomatoes are in better condition when sold maintaining maximum nutritional value.  Therefore, utilization is strengthened.  Finally, although everyone knows what tomatoes are and how to use them in their food, very few people knew what carrots were and that they are awesome.  Vitamin A is a supplement given to children at the baby weighings, usually because they are deficient of this nutrient.  Better utilization and education could make a tiny difference in this problem.  Our garden strongly promotes the use of moringa in every meal and one woman has started to make money from selling moringa powder grown through this project. 
In closing, we’ve learned a lot in the past year about how to make this garden a legitimate business and how to produce greater amounts and more diverse vegetables as well as fruit trees, green leaves, and tea leaves.  Plans for the near and far future have been set in motion and the future for this area looks very bright!