By Prince Acquah, GNA
Gomoa Assin (C/R), Jan. 26, GNA-The Chiefs and people of Gomoa Assin Mampong, a farming community in the Gomoa East District, have appealed to the government for a mechanised irrigation dam to boost agriculture in the area.
They said the facility would catalyse agricultural growth in the Central Regional Community through an all-year-round farming, adding that the overreliance on the rain was the bane of their farming activities.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Nana Obuabeng Tawiah XVI, the Chief of the community, said agriculture was “very challenging”, in spite of their vast arable lands, due to the lack of proper funding and modern facilities.
“We have a number of water bodies but they are far from our farmlands and so we always depend on the rain. In a year where we don’t get enough rains, farmers get distraught. But we want to work with or without the rains and so we need the dam,” he said.
The town’s request comes as a prelude to the celebration of its development-oriented festival dubbed ‘Gomoa Two Weeks’.
The weeklong festival, first celebrated in 1975 is a fundraiser for developmental projects in the community to avert overdependence on the central government.
This year’s celebration on the theme: The “Education and Security: Our Key to Development”, will be climaxed with a grand durbar at the town’s community centre on Saturday, January 29, 2022 and crowned with a thanksgiving service on Sunday, January 30.
The population of the town is about 1, 500 with more than 75 per cent of them doing both crop and animal farming.
They produce grains and cereals such as rice and maize as well as fruits and vegetables such as pawpaw, cabbage, pepper and cucumber.
They also grow tubers such as yam and cassava and engage in livestock rearing including; poultry and piggery.
Nana Tawiah observed that the lack of proper support accounted for why farmers in Ghana wallowed in abject poverty unlike their counterparts in other parts of the world.
“As farmers helping to sustain agriculture in our way here, we need the government to fund us to scale up our production,” he appealed.
The chief also urged government to “extend electricity to settlements close the farmlands to encourage the youth to go into farming”.
A farmer in the community, Mr Michael Graham, reiterating the calls of the chief, said they needed investment to modernise agriculture in the area.
“We have got the land, but doing farming is a bit difficult because we don’t have access to funds and good roads. We have waterbodies but we don’t have irrigation systems and that is our major concern,” he said.
A community developer and farmer, Mr Gary Cooper Fia-Kojo Ayivi called on investors to turn attention to Gomoa Assin Mampong, citing the resourcefulness and the potentials of the community.
He expressed the need for investors to establish a rice processing factory in the town to boost rice production and enhance economic activities.
“A lot of rice is produced here and so with the rice mill, they can have a finished product from here. It is a vast community with about 75 per cent as farmers but the finishing output is next to nothing. Investors need to come so that they can put the community in the limelight,” he said.
GNA
