The Minister of State for Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Nurah Gyeile has assured that the one village, one dam project is underway to meet timelines however he says the actual date for completion of the initiative is haze to make any announcement.
According to him, the Ministry cannot reveal the date for full implementation of the one village, one dam policy due to the different dates the contracts were awarded and some technical issues faced in certain areas.
He indicated that the project has led to the construction of 88 of the dams though most of them are yet to be fully operational.
Speaking in an interview, Dr. Gyiele stated that three of the dams in the Jirapa, Nandom and Tolon districts which are in use, have been renovated with the right technologies to reduce water wastage during the dry season.
“The contractors are finishing at different times because they were awarded at different times. But we have thirty of the dams at 50% completion, 69 are between 60 and 89% and 339 are between 90% and 100% completion,” he explained.
A recent survey conducted by the Peasant farmers Association of Ghana concluded that 90% of the dams constructed in the Upper East Region cannot be used for irrigation.
The survey indicated that these dams do not hold enough water to be used by farmers to irrigate their farms.
The Association claims the dams in question could be described as domestic or livestock in terms of use, but Dr. Nurah Gyeile has dismissed the claims.
“I am disputing this. We set out to do over 560 dams for people in the rural areas and [out of this number] we have given out contracts for 457. They are at various stages of completion. If a dam is not completed, you can never judge a dam. You cannot say a dam that is not completed and contains little water cannot last. We were judged based on a wrong assumption.”
Dr. Nurah Gyeile
One district, One warehouse policy
Speaking on the government’s one district one warehouse policy, the Minister assured that 80 warehouses have already been given on contract, while they are seeking to construct additional 50 this year.
“As we took over and went through the books and field visits, we realized some districts already have warehouses that were built under other agricultural projects. Even if you don’t have a warehouse, we will provide one but where there is a warehouse and it is not utilized, we will not provide another. We have provided 80 warehouses and this year we are thinking of another 50,” he explained.
Esoko Ghana recently called on government to speed up the project ahead of the harvest season for farmers to prevent post-harvest losses.
Content Manager at Esoko Ghana, Francis Danso Adjei, in an interview called on government to show more commitment to meet this need.
He indicated that the lack of storage facilities will be a major problem for farmers and traders especially during the harvest season.
