President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to complete the Tamne irrigation dam to support dry-season farming in four districts in the Bawku area.
He said the project would particularly support onion production, given the area’s comparative advantage in the crop.
The President said increasing local onion production would help reduce Ghana’s reliance on imports from Niger.
He said this while speaking during a citizens’ engagement in Navrongo on Friday, August 14.
“And so we’ll finish the Tamni irrigation dam so that the four districts in the Bawku area can also go into their dry season production. Especially onion production. Because we know that the Bawku area has a comparative advantage when it comes to onion production,” he said.
“We want to cut down the amount of onions we import from Niger. And if we put enough land under irrigation, we should be able to import, substitute, and produce our own onions. And so government is going to support that,” he added.
President Mahama further said the Upper East Region would receive a share of the planned $5 billion investment, which would include the expansion of irrigation infrastructure to enable farmers to produce throughout the year.
“And I can assure you the Upper East region is going to get its fair share of that $5 billion. So that will cover creating more irrigation facilities so that our young people, even in the rainy season or the dry season, would have the opportunity to be able to produce,” he said.
“The minister told you that Upper East can produce all the vegetables and everything that we eat in this country. And we’re not even waiting for that program to start. We’ve started. We have the tomato revitalisation project that is taking place here,” President Mahama said.
According to him, about 2,500 acres of land could be brought under tomato cultivation, with the Pwalugu tomato factory serving as the main processing facility.
“We can bring in 2,500 acres of land under tomato production. And the Pwalugu tomato factory is going to be the epicenter of it. We’re going to rehabilitate the Pwalugu tomato factory so that we can process the tomatoes that Upper East is producing to feed the rest of the country,” he said.
