Rice farmers who are cultivating the Weta irrigated field in the Volta Region have called on government to support them with an excavator and a water pump, to enable them reclaim the 250 hectares of irrigable land which is submerged under water.
Nearly a quarter of the 880 hectare irrigated area has been submerged underwater since 2006, causing farmers to lose over GHc. 6 million every year.
The farmers have tried helplessly to reclaim the land by their collective effort but to no avail, hence the call on government to intervene.
Government’s intervention they say will help them contribute more effectively to the agenda of planting for food and Jobs.
Some of the farmers told Citi News the lack of an excavator renders a large area of the farmland inaccessible and uncultivable.
The area has become waterlogged for which reason they may have to fly drones to spray the farmland with herbicides and insecticides, something they cannot afford.
“You cannot work in the drains for the water to run pass the farm causing the whole area to flood. Humans and combine harvesters cannot go onto the field to work, the land has become too swampy, and we are losing all our produce” the farmers lamented.
Mr. Joshua Adukpo, one of the farmers expressed the dissatisfaction of the farmers at the activities of salt industry workers saying “The salt miners direct too much water onto our farms costing us our produce since we don’t have the machines to redirect excess water away from our farms.”
Togbe Sala , another rice farmer said “an onsite excavator and a pump is all we need, and we will produce so much rice that Ghana may not even have to import rice, but we need the help of government. All we need is a pump and an excavator and we will be fine. Otherwise, from next year, we cannot even cultivate the whole area”.
The farmers say there’s is also a vast land between Afipe and Avalavi which will be very good for rice production.
They said the government brought some surveyors to the area a few years ago but they haven’t heard from them again.
“We are pleading with the government to come and create a dam in the area for us to cultivate that area as well. They said one village one dam, but we have over 60 villages around that area to take advantage of the dam. There are so many youth in the area who are interested in farming, government should also come and work on that land for us” the farmers told Citi News.
The Weta irrigation project owned by the government of Ghana, was constructed by the Chinese in June 1982. The field is being cultivated by 1,026 farmers, 229 of whom are women.
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By: Benjamin Aklama | citinewsroom.com | Ghana | bkaklama@gmail.com