The government is liaising with two partners from the United States of America (USA) and Brazil for expert advice and services on the proposed ‘one village, one dam’ project, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, has said.
The development partners, according to the minister, would offer expertise, as well as provide services on affordable and cost-effective irrigation services in the country.
Officials from the US and Brazil have already held talks with the government on the possibility of assisting in the implementation of the policy of constructing the affordable but efficient dams, particularly in the northern part of the country.
The talks form part of efforts towards fulfilling the government’s agricultural policy.
Efficient interventions
Dr Afriyie-Akoto, who announced this at a stakeholder consultative workshop on Ghana’s National Irrigation Policy organised by the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) in Accra yesterday, said the development partners would introduce, among other things, modern irrigation systems such as a mobile irrigation programme which had the potential of providing efficient and reliable irrigation for more than 50 acres of land at a go.
He said the mobile irrigation services could serve clusters of farms, stressing that the system would provide smallholders with a reliable source of irrigation, especially during the dry season.
According to the minister, the government is seeking to introduce a paradigm shift in irrigation in the country.
He said the era of large-scale irrigation systems which did not guarantee the all-year-round availability of water for farmers would soon be over.
He hinted of far-advanced plans to relieve farmers from the burden of bearing the cost of electricity on irrigation farms even before the national policy of ‘one village, one dam’ takes off.
Incentives
“We want to make sure the farmers have adequate incentives and motivation to do their work. The government wants to bear the cost of electricity so that farmers can save their little earnings as preparations are underway to commence the dam projects,” he stressed.
The minister further revealed that various committees had been set up to conduct the necessary studies towards the implementation of the policy.
Dr Afriyie-Akoto also touched on the Planting for Food and Jobs Policy which he said would spearhead the government’s agricultural programmes in the first term of the NPP administration.
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