Dr. Charles Kwowe Nyaaba, Executive Director of the Peasant Farmers Association has appealed to the government to invest more in irrigation mechanisms so as to make the agricultural sector more resilient, owing largely to the unlikely patterns of the rains in Ghana lately.
This appeal is based on the enormous challenge faced by players within the food value chain, especially, farmers in Ghana, who are pushing for more sustainable ways to respond to the recent trend of events in the sector. According to them, these new ways have become necessary as they will impact on efforts to boost agricultural production and preservation in the country.
The Executive Director, Dr. Charles Kwowe Nyaaba on the developments said:
“For the past 5 years, the rains come around July and by October, it ends. When we go to the middle belt around Techiman, Nkoranza, Kintampo areas, they have two planting seasons; the major season and minor season, where by now, people would have planted their maize and other things and then in July, they will plan for the minor season.
“As we speak, it hasn’t rained in Kintampo, Techiman for them to start planting. So, we are not able to do the double planting season that we used to do. When you come to the coastal belt, around Hohoe, Kejebi, Kete-Krachi and all those areas, the rains have reduced to just one major season and the patterns too have changed. So when you plant your crops, you are likely to lose everything. Sometimes, the crops will be ready to tassel and the rains will not come. And then farmers will have to clear everything and restart again. So when we talk of climate change in recent times, it has affected farming a lot. It has affected the push system. It has affected livestock, and even the crop yields.
Dr. Nyaaba
Calling out for investment in irrigation mechanisms, Dr Nyaaba said:
“Even if extension officer comes to teach you that this year, the rains will not come that much, what can you do? It has to be backed with investment. And that’s why we keep calling on investing in irrigation systems, because, if you look at all agrarian countries across the globe, everybody is going the irrigation way, because, the raining pattern has changed. In Israel for instance, their rains are not up to what we are getting here but they’ve been able to irrigate all their farmlands and they cultivate all year round.
“When we go to China, the same thing. When we go to India, small, small, small, small, irrigation systems. Over here in Ghana, we attempted to do that through the government’s one village, one dam initiative but it failed. It wasn’t properly done. If that was properly done, at least when the rains stop, with the small dams that are created within the various communities, farmers will still be able to use that as a backup for the limited raining pattern, but that is not working.”
Dr. Nyaaba
The Agric sector needs ¢10 billion to curtail some of its limitations
To curtail some of the limitations that hinder the growth of the agricultural sector, the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana indicated that the country’s agricultural industry needs about ¢10 billion.
The Chamber explained that, although, the country has in place feasible policies, the need for the industry players to adopt new strategies and technology to maximize the investment made by both private and public sector is important.
Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, Anthony Morrison said;
“In general, we estimate from the Chamber of Agribusiness that Ghana’s agriculture and Agribusiness sector requires ¢10 billion direct investment mopping funds from both public and private sector for the next 10 years for us to be able to mitigate some of the challenges we have in the industry.
“Let us say that we have a lot of regulatory regimes in place. Ghana is one of the countries where we don’t lack policies. However, there is still need to adopt some new technologies, some skills in the sector…”
Morrison
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