Accra, Aug. 24 GNA - Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Food and Agriculture, on Tuesday called for the use of simple technology to improve agriculture.

He said the application of simple machinery would go a long way to reduce the labour that had been associated with farming across the nation.

Major Quashigah was speaking during an inspection tour of a Poldaw Wind-pump project at Kweiman in the Greater Accra Region.

The wind-pump, which was inaugurated last year under the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP), was developed using modern engineering expertise to pump underground water to irrigate a nine-acre land for 32 farmers at Kweiman.

The pump that draws water from a depth of 90 metres to 140 metres, can deliver between 21,000 litres and 42,000 litres per day.

It is also suitable for any location with an average wind-speed of three minutes per second and can withstand storms of up to 180 kilometres per hour.

Major Quashigah said the idea to set up the wind-pump was to use the resources at the VIP to the benefit of the farmers, who needed them most.

He urged media practitioners to encourage and expose farmers in the rural area, who had always contributed in helping the nation, to be self-sufficient in food production and for export.

The Minister said plans were underway to construct additional 20 wind-pumps across the country to support farmers to cultivate vegetables.

Nii Amartey Kwei II, Chief of Kweiman, commended the Government for setting up the wind-pump to support vegetable farmers. He said the project had come at the right time because previously their crops withered due to lack of water to irrigate the farms. He appealed to the Government to provide additional storage facilities so that they could store water to irrigate their farms.