The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has appealed to the government to provide more irrigation facilities to support farming activities in the country. According to the association, the lack of adequate irrigation facilities is a major constraint to farming, particularly in the face of climate change.
The National President of PFAG, Wepia Awal Adugwala, noted that the association’s members are largely smallholder farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture, which is vulnerable to climate variability.
He emphasized that irrigation facilities would enable farmers to produce crops throughout the year, increasing food security and reducing poverty.
Mr. Adugwala also called on the government to rehabilitate the existing 1 Village 1 Dam schemes and expand them to cover more farming communities.
“We continue to urge the government to look inward and support the farmers. What are the challenges we are facing? Irrigation, as we are here, climate change, look at the weather, most of the dams are dried up, and we urge the government to critically look at it. We did our own assessment on the one village, one dam that was made to ensure that there is enough water in the region for year-round farming, and it came to our notice that a good number of the dams are not working. So we call on the government to reengineer these dams and make sure that the right thing is done. All stakeholders should be consulted to make sure that we have water to do year-round farming. It is very key to us,” he said.
The National President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana was speaking to the media at the inaugural Peasant Farmers Day celebration held at Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana municipality.
Dr. Charles Nyaaba, a member of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of Akuafo Nketewa, threw more light on the Peasant Farmers awards scheme organized by his outfit and PFAG, which took place in Navrongo, stating that the event is to recognize the resilience of their aggregators, farmers, and other actors in the agribusiness field.
“The purpose of this inaugural ceremony is not just a recognition of achievements but also to pay tribute to our aggregators, farmers, and other actors in the agribusiness field for their resilience in the face of adversities and risks such as climate risk, political risk, and economic risk to feed our nation and provide raw materials for industry.”
A total of 136 Peasant Farmers, as well as aggregators, received various prizes ranging from farm inputs to home appliances.
Source: A1Radioonline.Com|101.1MHZ|David Azure|Navrongo|
