The Ministry for Food and Agriculture has deployed extension officers to aid in identifying viable valleys in Ghana’s forest valleys for irrigation purposes.
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the sector minister, disclosed this in an interview with Kwame Sefa Kayi on Peace FM.
The minister alluded to irrigation being a huge problem for Ghanaian farmers especially those in the northern parts of the country.
He said that these areas experience major rainfall once in 12 months unlike those in the forest belt who experience rainfall at least twice in a year.
“Building a source of irrigation is very expensive, because it is an infrastructure to capture water depending on the topography, the smallest dam that can be built which I have been told by the irrigation authority will cost at least 2.5 million cedis” he said.
The minister disclosed that, fortunately, the forest valleys which is from Bono East down to the Volta region have huge valleys containing water that can be harnessed to support irrigation.