ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Ghana Thursday signed a technical support agreement under which three West African countries will be assisted in the management of weeds in their water bodies.

FAO's representative for Africa, Bamidele Dada and Ghana's minister of environment, science and technology, Cletus Avoka signed the agreement, which will benefit Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso.

Under the agreement, FAO would spend 181,000 dollars for the provision of experts, needs assessment, training and awareness creation programmes and breeding of insects for biological control of the weeds.

Dada said the two-year project, taking off in July, would make use of vehicles and other technical equipment and logistics used under the 1994-1998 Integrated Control of Aquatic Weeds Project in Ghana.

The project was sponsored by the then European Economic Community with FAO's assistance.

"Water weeds affect inland fishing and productivity. They block waterways and drainage and impede navigation, transportation and irrigation.

"FAO, unlike the World Bank, does not have money to give out, but it abounds in human and technical support, which are available for member countries to utilise to facilitate food security," Dada said.

According to the FAO representative, the organisation decided to support a joint programme with Togo and Burkina Faso because water weeds easily spread and are interconnected.

Experts from the three countries and those of the FAO would work together, using the department of biological control of the University of Ghana as the breeding ground for pests to be set on water hyacinth, water fern and water lettuce in the Volta River Basin.

Avoka thanked FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf for considering the appeal made during his visit to Ghana in 1999 to initiate the project.

"Ghana, which will be the nucleus of project, will not disappoint the FAO", the minister said.

"What is interesting about this project is that it is not limited to Ghana, but it extends to Burkina Faso and Togo.

"This, to us, is most important owing to the fact that there is evidence of the presence of water weeds, especially water hyacinth, in the tributaries of Volta River, which feed into the Volta Lake."

A senior scientific officer of the Water Research Institute of Ghana, Kweku Amoka Atta de Graft-Johnson, said the joint project would stimulate action needed for an ECOWAS water weed study which has been stalled by lack of co-operation.