Megogo farmers worried over drying-up of dam

Farmers of the Megogo community in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region have expressed worry over the drying up of a dam the government provided them under its One Village, One Dam’ (1V1D) project last year to assist in dry season farming.

The farmers, who need the dam to cultivate tomatoes, okro, pepper, garden eggs, onions, cabbage and lettuce among other green leafy vegetables during dry seasons, expressed their worry through the Ghanaian Times on Tuesday.

Mr Amadu Abugri, one of the spokespersons of the farmers, indicated though they appreciated government’s intervention by way of the 1V1D in the community to assist them in dry season farming activities, the rate at which the dam was fast drying up was very frightening.

He said as a result of the problem, the majority of the farmers have abandoned their farms as most of the crops were wilting.

He stressed that the immediate step that could be taken to address the problem would be the provision of boreholes so that the dam could later be expanded to carry more water to complement the boreholes to empower every farmer in the area going into dry season farming.

Mr Abugri, therefore, appealed to the government and non-governmental organisations to, as a matter of urgency, provide them with boreholes as alternative sources of water to go into dry season farming.

“The water level is too low, as at now and most of our crops are wilting for lack of water. We were expecting that the water in the dam will take us to the end of February, but we are in January and the water level is already too low,” Mr Abugri lamented.

Another smallholder farmer, Madam Ramatu Abiale, stated that she and the husband initially thought that with the 1V1D intervention, they could go into dry season farming but had to abandon the idea due to the challenge.