Ashaiman (GA/R), Sept 19, GNA - Farmers living in the environs of the Ashaiman Irrigation Dam have appealed to stakeholders to take immediate steps to check unsanitary conditions of the scheme, saying it had become a waste dump for residents. At a sensitization seminar on Thursday at Ashaiman, the farmers said residents had turned the banks of the dam into a toilet and refuse dump adding that estate developers have also encroached on the 130-acre site.

The forum was organized by the Ghana Trade and Livelihoods Coalition (GTLC) on the theme: "Obtaining self-sufficiency in rice production in Ghana - Ashaiman Irrigation site as case study." Mr Bernard Kanati, Secretary to the Farmers Association at the Irrigation Project Site, said the removal of government domestic support, coupled with low tariffs on imported rice and the rise in input cost were hampering rice production in the country.

Mr Ernest Debrah, Minister for Food and Agriculture, in a speech read for him, said obtaining self-sufficiency in rice production in Ghana required a combination of strategies that would increase yield in the four rice growing ecologies.

He named the four rice growing ecologies as upland ecology, inland valleys, hydromorphic and irrigated ecologies. Mr Debrah said total irrigation was expected to grow at a rate of 50 percent per annum which would lead to a total of 50,000 acres of irrigated land by 2010.

He said currently, there were 21 irrigation schemes in the country, including 12 rice-growing projects of which Ashaiman is one. Mr Kwabena Okai Ofosuhene, Greater Accra Focal Person of the GTLC, said food security and poverty reduction had been compromised as policy implementation gaps created space for escalation in food importation. Mr Ofosuhene noted that for such gaps to be bridged for the sustainability of the sector, there should be consistency in government policies on trade, adding that such policies must aim at building capacity and assisting rice farmers to generate surpluses. He suggested that the Ministries and other state institutions could provide a level aggregate demand for local rice, instead of procuring imported rice during implementation of their policies such as the school feeding policy.