Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Lack of adequate credit facilities for farmers;
The inability of farmers to play a leading role in the scheme
management;
Unwillingness of farmers to cultivate on the same plot due to the loss
of soil nutrients as a result of continuous cultivation. Farmers allow
land to fallow to regain fertility.
4.5.2
Lessons from Vea and Tono Irrigation
Schemes for Future Irrigation Development
The analyses conducted on both schemes so far have revealed that both
irrigation schemes are under-performing in terms of productivity, with the
Tono scheme being better than Vea. Both schemes are financially
unsustainable and need pragmatic interventions to be salvaged. The huge
investment into both schemes has not yielded the expected productivity for
the economic benefit of the country. What is the implication for future
irrigation development in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa in general?
The challenges affecting the Vea Irrigation Scheme begun with unresolved
social impacts during construction which eventually incapacitated the
management in instituting effective and agreeable land-tenure arrangements
with affected local farmers. Tracing back the source of these problems, it can
be deduced that consultations and negotiations that took place between the
developers of the irrigation schemes and would-be-affected persons was not
enough or agreements were breeched by the developing party. The interests
of the affected local people who would become eventual beneficiaries of the
irrigation schemes were ignored, and this has resulted in them having
managed to control the Vea scheme. The lesson here is that future irrigation
developments have to ensure effective stakeholder participation and respect
of all negotiated agreements.
Another lesson is the low land, crop and water productivity of both schemes.
Only about 50% of developed irrigable lands is cultivated, and with the
exception of rice other crops obtain low yields. The low productivities can be
linked to (a) faulty irrigation system design (especially in Tono); (b) broken
irrigation canals which have made some lands non-irrigable; (c) lack of
farmer motivation due to lack of credit and unreliable market for perishable
commodities; (d) unresolved land-tenure issues; (e) poor crop yield and (f)
ineffective institutional arrangements and functions.
About 500ha of Tono irrigation scheme (i.e. 20% of total) have not been
irrigated since commencement of the irrigation scheme due to faulty design.
The lack of routine maintenance of infrastructure has also resulted in
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