International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a non-profit scientific research organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries has encouraged women in the Upper East region to go into agriculture by providing them with small water reservoirs.
At a brief program in the Bolgatanga to launch a policy brief on how women’s access to small reservoirs can improve household livelihoods in northern Ghana, a research-economist at the IWMI Ghana, Dr. Bedru Balana, said community surveys reveals that small reservoirs were more accessible to women for multiple purposes including small-scale irrigation and livestock watering.
Mr. Balana indicated that the use of gravity- based small reservoirs irrigation schemes, which are more accessible to women would encourage them to adopt high value, Market-oriented cash crop farming in the dry season and significantly improve household incomes and nutrition.
On her part, the Upper East Regional Women in Agriculture Development Officer, Mary Kogana Paula called on traditional rulers, family heads, and society to give women the opportunity to have access to land for agricultural purposes.
Highlighting the enormous impact women make in the area of agriculture, Mrs. Kogana, said women in the region and the entire northern part of Ghana are actively engaged in food production.
Deputy Director, Women in Agricultural Development, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Paulina Addy noted that the project had come at a good time and was a boost for the government of the day since it intends to dig dams in all parts of the three Savannah regions
Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen/a1radioonline.com/Ghana
