Ghana has been awarded a €44.7 million grant as part of the Agriculture Water Management Project (AWMP), which will be used to construct and rehabilitate 35 irrigation schemes in northern Ghana.
The project would help expand irrigated agriculture in northern Ghana, with 11 districts in the Upper West Region, two districts in the North East Region, and one district in the North East Region covered.
The Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) will implement it to promote green and inclusive growth, reduce inequalities, and improve Ghana’s food security.
The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the European Union are funding it (EU)
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, signed the agreement on behalf of the government, while Mr Christophe Cottet, Country Director for AFD, and Ms Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships, co-signed it.
The signing was witnessed by Madam Anne-Sophie Ave’, the French Ambassador to Ghana, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Agriculture, and Mr. Irchad Razaaly, the EU Ambassador to Ghana.
Mr Ofori-Atta, who thanked all of the partners, said the project would help expand irrigated agriculture in northern Ghana, with 11 districts in the Upper West Region, two districts in the North East Region, and one district in the North East Region covered.
The project, he said, was in line with the government’s priorities because it addressed the key issues that smallholder farmers and farming systems in the Northern Region face.
“The AWMP program complements our Planting-For-Food and Jobs program perfectly because it will help address food insecurity, improve farmer income, and promote poverty eradication,” the Minister said.
The project, according to Minister of Food and Agriculture Owusu Afriyie Akoto, will help develop Northern Ghana’s untapped irrigation potential.
He said the 35 small irrigation schemes would cover 1,000 hectares of land, with 15 irrigation schemes fed by earth dams, nine schemes fed by pumping from the Black Volta River, and 11 schemes fed by pumping from holes.
The European Union Commissioner for Internal Partnerships, Ms Jutta Urpilainen, reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to Ghana’s agriculture sector.
She stated that the sector was critical to the country’s economic development and that it would help to boost the socio-economic development and stability of northern Ghana’s regions.
She described the project as an ambitious and important investment that would help smallholder farmers increase their income and make their yields more predictable.
Investing in agriculture, according to France’s Ambassador to Ghana, Madam Anne Sophie Ave’, is an investment in the future.
She explained that the project aimed to plant for peace and security as well as for long-term sustainability, and that it would result in more jobs and revenue, environmentally friendly agriculture, year-round production, and food security for all.
“Irrigation system construction is critical to increasing yields in the targeted Upper West, Savannah, and North East regions,” she added.
More than 6000 smallholder farmers will benefit from the project, which will provide a stable and additional source of income for them. They currently rely on unreliable rain-fed agriculture and are increasingly vulnerable to extreme climatic events such as droughts and floods.
The Project’s signatories have agreed to work together to support irrigation in northern Ghana, where agriculture employs 85 percent of the population.
The European Union will contribute €39,7 million, while France will contribute €5 million, all of which will be managed by AFD, with the MoFA and GIDA as implementing partners.
On the Black Volta River, the projects will fund the rehabilitation and construction of 15 dams, 11 boreholes, and 9 pumping stations, as well as 1300 hectares of irrigated perimeters.
It will accompany farmers as they transition from rain-fed to irrigated agriculture, assist Water Users Associations in running irrigation schemes, and strengthen GIDA’s capacity to monitor these schemes.
