Farmers in the Pusu-Namongo community of the Talensi District in the Upper East Region are appealing to the government to urgently desilt existing dams in their area to support year-round farming activities. The appeal comes against the backdrop of worsening climate change impacts that have seen water sources across the region dry up.
Speaking during a visit by the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, John Setor Dumelo, the farmers emphasized the urgent need for government intervention. According to Tii Godfred, Secretary to the Pusu-Namongo Water Users Association, many farmers have been forced to abandon their dry-season farms, especially at a critical time when crops such as tomatoes and onions were fruiting, due to the insufficiency of water in the few remaining dams.
“In this jurisdiction, climate has changed drastically. The weather has shifted and the rainfall pattern has shifted. The challenge that we face as farmers is that many of the dams are silted. Just recently, some farmers couldn’t finish harvesting all their produce and had to abandon their farms just because the level of water had reduced in such a way that in certain places if they open the water, it couldn’t reach there. So, in that case, they had to stop and because of that, some people have run at a loss,” he recalled.
Mr. Tii on behalf of the farmers requested support with farm inputs and tractor services to enhance their farming activities. Another farmer, Musah Sadat, renewed calls for the government to expedite the construction of the long-awaited Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam and to revamp the defunct Pwalugu Tomato Factory, which they believe would boost agricultural production and processing in the region.
In response, Deputy Minister, John Setor Dumelo assured the farmers of the government’s commitment to rehabilitating existing dams and constructing new ones to enable all-year-round farming.
“In the NDC manifesto, we said we were going to build Farmer Service Centers and it is something that we are going to do. I have all the power to probably say that Talensi will get their own. The Farmer Service Centers will have tractors, seeds, combine harvesters, and everything needed to be a good farmer. With respect to irrigation, we’ve launched a program called ‘Irrigation for Wealth’ and we are irrigating over 10,000 hectares of land but also, we are making sure that we rehabilitate existing irrigation schemes and this community will be no exception,” he added.
He also revealed plans for the government to partner with the private sector to establish processing plants nationwide to address the perennial issue of post-harvest losses.
The minister’s visit formed part of his working tour of the Upper East Region to assess the challenges facing farmers and identify areas where immediate interventions are needed. On his part, the Member of Parliament for Talensi, Daniel Dung Mahama, mentioned that about 16 dams in the constituency that were constructed decades ago need to be desilted to harvest enough water for dry season farming, of which he is leaving no stone unturned to ensure they are rehabilitated.
The MP was optimistic that the ‘Nkoko nkitinkiti’ policy of supporting about 55,000 households across the country would create jobs for the people of Talensi.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|Joshua Asaah|101.1Mhz|Pusu-Namongo
