VRA Should Allow Landowners Of 12,500 Acres Near Akosombo To Farm Their Own Land

Ghana will be celebrating 67 years of independence, come March 6, 2024. With 4,709 hectares (11.5 million Acres) of arable land, a 930-mile-long Volta River and 148 Cubic Kilometers of water in the Volta River alone, we still import 90% of our tomatoes from Burkina Faso and 80% of our onions from Niger and Burkina Faso – two dry Sahel countries. What happened to using the Volta River for irrigation and dry season farming to make up these shortfalls?

A major use of a vast water body such as the Volta River, apart from the production of hydroelectricity, fishing and tourism, should be for irrigation for farming, which should make Ghana not only food-sufficient but a major exporter of food and other agricultural products to other African countries – and even farther. This should enable the country earn valuable foreign exchange and save scarce dollars spent on imports. The Volta River Authority (VRA) however, decided in 2003 that the best use of this valuable resource is to leave over 12,500 acres of land around the river near Akosombo in the Asuogyaman District, as a forest reserve even though VRA does not own the land and has no power over those lands beyond a 280-feet contour around the lake. Yes, The Volta River Development Act (Act 461 of 1961) enjoins the VRA to enhance the natural beauty of the lakeside area by the planting of trees and otherwise. It is however, on all reasonable grounds, a big stretch for the VRA to interpret this to control over 5,149 hectares (12,500 Acres) of land belonging to others for afforestation and depriving them of the economic use of and benefit from their own land.

In order to ensure that the 12,500 Acres of land around the Volta River at Akosombo remained a forest (“reafforestation”) and not used for farming and other economic activities to benefit the landowners and the country, and knowing that it has no title to or authority over those lands, the VRA, on 9^th September, 2003 entered into a 20-year agreement with the landowners of the area - termed The Volta Gorge Landowner’s Association (VGLA) with 49 signatories. The agreement was to discourage the landowners from farming on the land or leasing out the land for farming in return for VRA undertaking to plant fruit trees on the land to benefit the landowners. The landowners agreed to reserve 280 feet from the river from encroachment even though the VRA, under its policy for management of the Volta River (Riparian Buffer Zone Policy) only required a buffer zone of 10 to 60 meters (32.8ft to 198.85 feet).

Paragraph 5.1 of the agreement between The VRA and VGLA provides: “VRA shall cultivate and plant six hundred (600) hectares of fruit trees in the volta gorge area and assign the fruit plantation to the landowners but shall retain such rights of supervision and control over the maintenance and cultivation of the fruit trees as may be required from time to time.” The VRA did not plant the 600 hectares of fruit trees - thus at once preventing the landowners of the use of their own land and at the same time not providing them with the economic benefit which the fruit trees would have provided. After the agreement expired on 9^th September, 2023, the VRA began to pressure the landowners to sign another 20-year agreement which the landowners refused resulting in intimidation tactics by VRA personnel. This is the context in which my 12-Acre maize farm at Asegya-old Apaaso, which was a month away from maturity was cut down by VRA personnel on 2^nd November, 2023 on land which does not belong to the VRA and which is not within the 280-feet contour area around the river – but belongs to my lessors, the Apaaso stool. How a person could decide, in a country that imports food, to go out and cut down almost mature crops, beats my mind.

The VRA must come to recognize the absurdity of sticking to “reafforestation” of over 12,500 Acres around the Volta River in the Asuogyaman District –- instead of permitting the use of the land for farming and other productive agricultural activities to provide food sufficiency and foreign exchange savings for the country. Having broken the agreement to plant 600 hectares of fruit trees to benefit the landowners and at the same time preventing the landowners from farming their own land, the VRA is in effect, unconstitutionally taking away private property without compensation – and must reconsider its stand.

By: John K. Akpalu, Esq.
New York, NY
January 12, 2024