Accra, Aug. 5, GNA – The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has set a target to put about 50,000 hectares under irrigation by 2010, Dr Nii Okai Hammond, Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture in Charge Projects, said on Friday. He told an Irrigation Awareness Creation Workshop jointly organised by the Irrigation Development Authority of MOFA, Ghana Society of Agricultural Engineers and Ghana Institution of Engineers among other collaborators in Accra that 13 projects would be completed by the end of the period. These would include the completion of all on-going irrigation projects such as the Small-Scale Irrigation Development Project (SSIDP), Small Farms Irrigation Project (SFIP), Upper West Agricultural Development Programme (UWADEP) and the Land Conservation and Rehabilitation Project (LACOSREP). Also in the Programme is a review and updating of feasibility studies on the Accra Plains Irrigation Project estimated to cover 100,000 hectares. The workshop, attended by engineers, agriculturalists, irrigation practitioners, equipment manufacturers and researchers, preludes an international conference on irrigation scheduled for December 6 to December 10 2005 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
