Regional Minister visits Accra irrigation projects

Mr Julius Debrah, Greater Accra Regional Minister, has inspected two major irrigation schemes in the Greater Accra Region to acquaint himself with their state of affairs. He said the inspection was also to interact with project officers as well as the farmers to get first hand information on the challenges facing them and to seek solutions to them. Some of the project schemes inspected included the Dawhenya Irrigation scheme, where the Minister inspected the Ghana Flowers and Green Limited; and the Kpong Irrigation Scheme- Asutuare, where he inspected the Tropo Farms, Golden Exotics and Area �A� in the Dangbe West District. Mr Debrah said his tour was due to the intension of government to reactivate the Accra plains irrigation project hence the visit before the commencement of the reactivation. Mr Gideon Martey, President, Osudoku Agricultural Cooperative Society, expressed appreciation to government for its intension to reactivate the project. The project, he said, was running at a slower pace for some time and that the farmers are very grateful for government�s stated goal. He said the project, since its establishment, has not seen any major rehabilitation and because of that most of the machines had broken down. Besides, choked drains, poor farm road networks as well as unstable marking and the inability to pay the service scheme, have also contributed to the current state of the project. Mr Benedictus Agbeko, Scheme Manager, Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme, said the scheme was made up of 450 hectares of which only 76 hectares were being cropped currently and 200 undeveloped. He said the project, formerly owned by state farms in the 60�s, was acquired for the irrigation scheme but was run down due to the lack of logistics. Mr Agbeko said the encroachment on the project land by estate developers, broken down pumps and high electricity tariffs were the major challenges of the project. He appealed to government to consider a revolving fund for the farmers to restart production, as well as supporting them with harvesting and post harvesting machines. Mr Debrah, after the inspection, said Ghana as a country had no excuse to complain of not being able to feed its citizens adding that he was convinced that the country could feed its citizens if the enabling environment was created. �Government was ready to create the enabling environment to enable private partners take advantage of the resources and help in developing the country�, he said.