Women farmers in Upper West Region call for support

Women farmers at Brutu in the Nandom District in Upper West Region have called on government, stakeholders and development partners to support them with irrigation dams to enable them to engage in dry season vegetable farming.

According to the women, agriculture was their major economic activity but, lack of irrigation facilities prevented them from engaging in farming during dry seasons to generate income to cater for the educational and health needs of their children.

In an interview, the Ghana News Agency at Brutu, Madam Lucy Yaongtibr, said they were depending on water from a borehole provided by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD) and a well to water crops in the lean season.

She said the situation impeded their efforts to cultivate vegetables on large scale and appealed for support for the construction of the dam to help produce vegetables in large quantities.

Another farmer, Madam Janet Dendele, who said she used monies accrued from sale of tomatoes and onions to pay for the school fees of her wards, however, said she spent almost the whole day at the garden to water her crops because many people depended on the single borehole to water their crops.

CIKOD had trained some women how to prepare compost and use in their gardens and how to use neem leaves extract to control pest affecting their crops.

In a separate interview with Mr. Daniel Banuoku, the Deputy Director for CIKOD North said in other jurisdictions like Burkina Faso, the government put in place the necessary infrastructure including dams as water sources for both vegetable and livestock production.

This he said help the country to export vegetables like tomatoes to Ghana.