Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon. Eric Opoku has paid a working visit to Kpong Irrigation Scheme to assess the 75% completion of the rehabilitation of Kpong Irrigation Scheme to combat climate variability and improve the resilience of Ghana’s food system.
Kpong Irrigation Project is the biggest irrigation site in Ghana irrigating about 4,040 hectares consisting of smallholder rice farmers made up of 2,040 hectares as well as the commercial banana farmers made up of, 2,000 hectares.
“Let me state that in this era of climate change, Ghana needs to build resilience to mitigate the shocks in water resources management for agriculture. In this regard, it is envisaged that the full rehabilitation of the scheme would improve its efficiency to increase agricultural production for both crop and fish farming,” the Project Lead of the Kpong Irrigation Scheme, Kofi Modzaka said in his speech to welcome the Minister.
He confirmed that the rehabilitation of the second phase of the Scheme started in November 2024 with funding from the World Bank has been speedily facilitated to serve farmers at the enclave.
According to him, road construction within the enclave, section lining of the main canal, completing the conversion of open line channels to closed pipe system, and automating the entire Scheme are the entire rehabilitation works that are ongoing with 75% completed.
“The full rehabilitation of the scheme would improve its efficiency to increase agricultural production for both crop and fish farming, improve farmers’ income, improve access to farms, and prevent potential conflict among farmers whose sessions were not developed under the GCAP intervention. Likewise, access to water will also improve for all the private stakeholders who depend on the scheme for their operation,” he added.
However, financial constraint has impeded the progress of the work at the scheme. He believed that Minister’s visit would facilitate the work to its completion.
The Project Coordinator for West African Food System and Resilience Programme (FSRP), Mr. Osei Owusu-Agyemang added that irrigation goes beyond construction. “When we say irrigation people think about construction, but it goes beyond construction.”
He explained that irrigation talks more of the community that would be affected. It talks of the people who uses the facility provided.
“There is more to engage in than construction, because if you construct and the community does not accept it, the farmers don’t farm, it becomes useless and wasted,” he guided.
Charles Hombley, a farmer and the President for the Kpong Irrigation Scheme – Water Users Association commended GCAP, FSRP and all the stakeholders for the rehabilitation of the Scheme.
He however, stated that farmers are facing some challenges. Farmers are experiencing gluts on their farms, “we produce but we can’t sell, the paddy rice we produce, we cannot sell because there is no market.” He called on the Minister to assist with the off taking through buffer stock.
Again, he pleaded to the Minister to prioritise Asutsuare enclave when the government start constructing mechanization centres in the country.
He ended by calling the Minister for an excavator to facilitate the distillation of the drainage systems in the enclave.
To facilitate the completion of the Kpong Irrigation Scheme and make water available for all the 4,000 hectares of land for agricultural production, the Minister of Agriculture Hon. Eric Opoku mentioned that he has submitted the four certificates of payment to the finance minister for immediate action.
Minister said the government’s agenda is to transform the economy through agriculture, thus, Agriculture for Economic Transformation agenda. Feed Ghana Programme is to operationalize the agenda and irrigation is anchored in Feed Ghana Programme to transition Ghana’s agriculture from rain-fed to irrigation.
Due to this, he said irrigation is the topmost priority to the ministry and lump some of the Ministry’s resources have been directed to irrigation development to enhance year-round food production.
Minister assured the enclave of Farmer Service Centre to assist farmers who are predominantly smallholders who don’t have the means to procure huge equipment to get access to the equipment suitable for production and training.
“I agree perfectly with you. Every producer, whether in the agricultural space or elsewhere, the only motivation, the only thing that drives you into production is availability of markets. If the market is not there, there is no motivation for anyone to go into that production, unfortunately, in our case, our farmers have invested so much in production and they have produced so much and they are not getting the market for their produce,” he lamented.
He assured the farmer to liaise with the millers and Buffer Stock to off take all the paddy rice at the enclave to ease the hardship of the farmers. Minister rightly shared some contacts with the WUA association President to keep in touch to solve the issue.
He promised to procure excavator for the enclave to facilitate the distilling and to make sure all the roads within the enclave are constructed for the farmers to carry out effective production for the people of Ghana.
