How food safety is transforming the lives of women bushmeat traders in Ghana
Women bushmeat traders in Kumasi, Ghana, are adopting improved food safety practices through a partnership with the FAO. This initiative aims to protect public health while securing the livelihoods of women who rely on the bushmeat trade.
Why it matters
Improving food safety in informal markets is critical for preventing zoonotic disease transmission and supporting economic stability in developing regions.
“Before FAO came, we thought this was simply how bushmeat should be sold because it was how our mothers did it. Today we know that protecting our customers also protects our families,” says Comfort Baidoo.
Baidoo is a bushmeat trader at Kumasi’s Atwemonom Market who was participating in Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) training on food safety.
Before dawn each day, the women of Atwemonom Market begin preparing for another busy trading day.
Their stalls soon fill with smoked and fresh bushmeat, attracting customers from across the city. For these women, bushmeat is much more than food.
It is the source of household income, school fees, healthcare, and financial security for their families.
In Ghana, bushmeat commonly includes species such as grasscutters (greater cane rats), duikers, bushbuck, porcupines, monkeys, and other small mammals.
Bushmeat is generally defined as the meat of wild animals harvested from forests and other natural habitats.
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