Wa, Jan 26, GNA - Dr Mark Hansen, Deputy Upper West Regional Director of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) says water resources, especially dams constructed for dry season farming and animal husbandry in the area, are underutilised.

He said the purpose for which the dams had been constructed had not been achieved because of squabbles among the local people over ownership of the land housing the dams. He called on traditional authorities to amicably settle all disputes and allow full participation of the people in the utilisation of the dams. Dr. Hansen was addressing members of the Seed Producers Association of Ghana (SEEDPAG) at a workshop to mobilise support for peasant agriculture through increase financing and improved farming methods in Wa.

He said the interest of the people to use water from the dams was not as encouraging as those in the Upper East Region and urged the people to patronise the facilities to help improve their health status and income levels.

He announced that dams that had been broken down in the last year's floods would be rehabilitated this year to enhance water restoration for animal husbandry and dry season gardening. Dr Hansen noted however that the problem facing many farmers in the region was how to sustain the impact of the knowledge and skills they had acquired from agricultural projects. On agricultural financing, Dr. Hansen said MOFA was not a financial institution but facilitator that either directly or indirectly helped in the disbursement of credit facilities to farmers. Dr. Hansen suggested to the government and international organisations involved in agriculture, that it was not prudent to finance one component of the sector but the total valued chain must be resourced.

Mr. Dennis Puorideme, a Development Consultant and a resource person at the forum, called on financial institutions to take up agriculture as a profitable venture to support the provision of goods and businesses in order to create more jobs. He said it was sad for many of the financial institutions in the country to narrow their support to only business entities to the detriment of agriculture, pointing out: "this practice had helped entrenched poverty and hunger among the people". Mr. Puorideme appealed to farmers' organisations to embark on dialogue to make sure that the public and private sectors played their role as effective contributors to national development. "There is the need for partnership between the private and public sectors to develop agriculture as a business and not to be left under the hands of one sector alone," he said, adding that if the private sector is helped to grow, the national economy will also grow to reduce poverty.

Mr. Puorideme said agriculture was the main stay of the country, contributing 65 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provided 40 percent of employment for the people and must therefore be taken serious. Naa Bawa Seidu, President of the Upper West Seed Producers Association of Ghana, appealed to the government to pass the Seed Bill currently before Parliament. Government should also provide mechanized boreholes for farmers in farming communities instead of dams which, he said, were being underutilised.

Naa Seidu called for regular training and the provision of credit facilities to farmers to encourage them to see agriculture as a business and not for food production alone. Although the forum was called to provide a dialogue between the farmers and managers of financial institutions in the region, representatives of the institutions did not show up and no reasons had been assigned for their absence. 26 Jan 09