Ministry Revives Nine Irrigation Facilities (Spread)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
NINE abandoned irrigation facilities have been rehabilitated to enhance the production of rice and vegetables in the country.
To make the facilities fully operational, water pumps are to be installed beginning from the end of this month.
The nine projects are situated at Weija in the Greater Accra Region, Aveyime, Afife and Kpando Torkor in the Volta Region, Sataso and Akumadan in the Ashanti Region, Tanoso and Subingya in the Brong Ahafo Region and Botanga in the Northern Region.
At his turn at the Meet-the-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Ernest Akubour Debrah, said the projects were expected to increase the total farming area from 992 hectares in 2006 to 2,326 hectares.
Mr Debrah said a total of 11,630 small-scale farmers would benefit when the facilities became operational, while water-use efficiency of the facilities was expected to increase from 37 to 70 per cent.
The minister said some farmers had been trained under the Joint Irrigation Systems Management (JISM) to take up specific roles and responsibilities with regard to management of the schemes to improve their sustenance.
He said the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) had prepared a National Irrigation Policy, Strategy and Regulatory Measures to guide irrigation development in Ghana and help reduce the adverse effects of climatic changes on food production.
Mr Debrah said it was evident that the country was self-sufficient in most of its staple food items such as cassava, yam, cocoyam and plantain but yet to achieve self-sufficiency in rice, fish and meat.
Figures from the ministry, he said, indicated that maize production currently stood at 96 per cent; rice production was 33 per cent; cassava production, 199 per cent; yam, 369 per cent; plantain at 131 per cent; cocoyam, 117 per cent; livestock, 30 per cent and fisheries at 58 per cent.
He pointed out that the growth in the agriculture sector had also in recent times been propelled by the strong performance of the cocoa sub-sector, adding that production of cocoa had increased from 389.0 metric tonnes in the 2000/20001 cocoa season to 740.0 metric tonnes in the 2005/2006 cocoa season.
He said to achieve its objectives, the MoFA would continue to supply quality seeds and planting materials to farmers to boost crop production.
Consequently, he said, 250 seed growers were trained in 2007 to produce quality planting materials for sale to other farmers.
Touching on crop loss in the three northern regions because of the floods, he said the Upper East Region lost an estimated 13,880.55 metric tonnes; the Northern Region, 238,682.0 metric tonnes and Upper West Region 4,513.0 metric tonnes of food crops but was quick to add that measures put in place by the sector prevented the area from famine.
Mr Debrah said the government was ready to support the purchasing of machinery to food processors to preserve surplus food and advised Ghanaians to patronise made-in-Ghana food products to encourage the investors to add value to them.
On the Aveyime Rice Project, he said the government had almost completed negotiations with potential investors and what was left was the issue of compensation to some individuals.