Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A permanent shallow well farmer group in Ghana called Niyuuri Farmers
Group, was formed in 2004 with 18 members and currently has 28 members.
The group was formed to assist each other through communal labour and
also to seek financial and technical assistance as an organised group. The
group is led by an elected executive and guided by a set of by-laws.
It is common to find some of the permanent shallow well irrigation plots
isolated in the sub-basin. The owners of these irrigation plots do not belong
to any group and as such manage their plots individually. Permanent shallow
well farmers in Ghana have no link with the Ministry of Agriculture and as
such no extension officer is assigned to them.
5.3.4
Riverine Water Irrigation Scheme
Historical Background and Development
One of the most reliable water sources which farmers find relatively easy and
cheap to access is flowing water in perennial rivers. Over the years farmers
have been farming along the banks of the White Volta. This technology has
been practised in the sub-basin since 1992 around Pwalugu in the Upper
East Region and has expanded over the years. Also due to the regulating
effect of dams, small rivers like the Nakambe have become perennial streams
in the lower reaches in Burkina Faso, even improving supplies to towns in
northern Ghana (ICOLD members-Burkina Faso, 2001). This has
contributed to the upscaling of this irrigation technology. Meanwhile, since
the eradication of river blindness, the use of land along the river banks of the
White Volta sub-basin for irrigated farming has increased considerably
(Birner et al., 2005).
Other farmers also locate their farms downstream of large irrigation schemes
such as Vea and Tono and use the return flows and excess water from these
schemes (see
Figure 5.5)
.
Riverine irrigation technologies are practised by commercial irrigators. Due
to the availability of water especially along the perennial rivers, farmers are
not restricted by water availability and thus have the ability to cultivate
large plots of crops (0.5ha to 6ha)
3
compared to the plot sizes in large and
small reservoir irrigation schemes. However, competition for water intensifies
3
This range of farm size is typical of irrigation farms along the perennial streams
like the White Volta at Pwalugu, while downstream of large irrigation schemes the
range is 0.2-1.0ha.
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