Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.7: a) Initial stages of Riverine Alluvial Dugouts b) Latter stages of
Riverine Alluvial Dugouts.
From interviews conducted, this irrigation technology has been practised
since 1995 in the Atankwidi sub-catchment of the White Volta. The farmers
who introduced this technology were a group of four brothers who conceived
this idea during the construction of the Bolgatanga-Navrongo main road.
During the dry season of 1995, one young man by name Joel Aferigoh (a
native of the area who used to practise irrigation in Kumasi) returned from
Kumasi to Anateem, a village in the Atankwidi sub-catchment and observed
that some embankments created by the ongoing construction of the Bolga-
Navrongo Road had created some water storage in the Atankwidi river which
was unusual during dry season. Being a landowner along the river, he
decided to cultivate tomatoes along the river using rope and bucket to
irrigate his plot. After a successful harvest and high income that year, his
three brothers joined him in the dry season of 1996. This time they decided
to change from using rope and bucket to a motorized pump. Later on in the
season as the water dried up they decided to scoop the sand in the river to
have access to groundwater. This became a yearly practice. The scooping
results in irregularly shaped depressions in river channels called dugouts
which can also be classified as temporal shallow wells of irregular shapes,
sizes and depths. A field count made during the 2007/2008 dry season within
a stretch of about 30km along the Atankwidi River showed that there were
about 705 farmers using the riverine alluvial dugout technology on both sides
of the river. Thus the entreprenership skills acquired from Kuamsi helped
Joel to exploit the water resource, and ended up creating a technology which
did not exist in the area.
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