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‘1 dam, 1 village policy’ just a campaign promise – Agric Minister

By CitiFMonline
Politics 1 dam, 1 village policy just a campaign promise – Agric Minister
AUG 30, 2016 LISTEN

The Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Limuna Muniru has described the promise by presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo Addo to construct irrigation dams in every village in the northern part of the country as just  a ‘campaign promise.’

Nana Akufo-Addo on the campaign trail promised to undertake such project to boost agriculture   in those areas.

Though the Agriculture Minister conceded that irrigation is a major challenge in such areas, he said Nana Addo's idea is only a campaign promise and “not feasible.”

“I don't think this is very possible and I cannot support campaign promises, just promises that somebody wants to win elections with… If he has decided to go and be promising dams to every village in the northern part of the country, I don't think that is feasible,” he said on Eyewitness News.

While some people have welcomed Nana Addo's idea the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) believe it is not possible.

Alhaji Limuna Muniru further told Citi News that government is already putting in place measures to solve the irrigation problem in the northern part of the country.

“We don't just go damming, we appreciate the fact that we can no longer depend on rain fed agriculture so it is important to look at the issue of irrigation and if he has decided to go and be promising dam in every village in the northern part of the country, I don't think that is feasible to do but in any case he is promising to get the power to come back. There are a lot of things we are doing considering the fact that there is the need to put in irrigated lands so that people can have irrigated lands so that people can have farming throughout the year,” he added.

Irrigation projects will vary
Meanwhile, Nana Addo's spokesperson, Mustapha Hamid has insisted his boss will definitely implement the idea if elected in power .

He indicated that “every village will have an irrigation system that will irrigate their land. The details of it will come at the implementation stage.”

“There are certain villages that per the population the density may not need full blown dams. Some can even be irrigated by a number of boreholes and pumping the water to the farms and so on so there are various options… so there is what you call receptacles, full blown dams, there are dugouts and there are bore holes,” he added.


By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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