Govt urged to invest in irrigation to boost all-year-round farming

 The Coordinator of the “Sup­port to Soybean Development in Ghana” project, Mr Mumuni Id­drisu, has asked the government to increase investment into mod­ern irrigation systems in order to boost an all-year round farming and ensure food sufficiency in the country.

He said it was crucial to reduce over dependence on rain-fed agriculture which continued to impede sustainable food production.

 Launched in July last year, the project funded by the Japan Em­bassy to the tune of $600,000 and jointly implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), was to improve the cereals entire value chain and address food security challenges in Ghana.

Speaking at the close-out ceremony of the project in Accra on Friday, Mr Iddrisu enumerat­ed challenges including limited access to improved technologies, non-adherence to good agri­cultural practices, poor soil and climate change which contributes to low soyabean yields in the country.

Despite Ghana’s soyabean production potential projected at 700,000 tonnes per year, only about 26 per cent was being real­ised posing threats to sectors like poultry, aquaculture and livestock production as well as exportation and local consumption.

“Through this project we have supported over 500 small­holder farmers with improved technologies, built capacity along the value chain, supported farm­ers with equipment, among other achievements,” he added.

While urging the government to support the development of the national soyabean strategy to provide guidance and investment options to farmers, Mr Iddrisu pleaded that the government scale up solar-powered irrigation systems across farming areas and support period training of farm­ers to sustain soyabean fields.

The Ambassador of Japan to Ghana, Mochizuki Hisanobu, in a remark expressed the hope that the positive impacts of the project would open up new avenues for cooperation between Japan and Ghana, particularly in the area of food security and agricultural production.

For her part, the Senior Regional Resilience Officer for FAO, Africa, Priya Gujadhur, noted that the project aligned with the overall goal of Gha­na’s Planting for Food and Jobs phase two contributes to the Country Programme Framework (CPF) between FAO and the Ghana.

She said the success of the project would contribute to achieving Sustainable Devel­opment Goals (SDGs) two on ending hunger; SDG 13 for climate action and SDG 1 on end poverty by 2030 and hope the gains are sustained.

 BY ABIGAIL ANNOH