Akumadan Tomato Irrigation Project completed

The $2.2 million Akumadan Tomato Irrigation Expansion Project has been completed.

Started in 2011 by the Korean Rural Community Corporation, the project expanded the irrigation facilities.

The tomato farmers were also taught skills that would enable them to engage in all-year-round tomato and pepper cultivation to feed processing factories at Techiman and Wenchi, and also provide fresh tomato for the market.

Other features of the project were the expansion of irrigable areas by 60 hectares through the provision of improved sprinkler irrigation systems and construction of a new dam to increase the water storage.

The project also included the construction of a new pumping station and access roads in the expanded area.

Barring any technical hitches, the project will be handed over to the government on Thursday, November 14, 2013.

Speaking at an international workshop on the Akumadan Tomato Irrigation Expansion Project in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr Kofi Humado, said the project would improve the livelihoods of people at  Akumadan and surrounding villages by increasing agricultural productivity

The workshop was organised by MoFA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea; the Korea Rural Community Corporation (KRC), the Korea Engineering Consultant Corporation, and the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA).

According to Mr Humado, the successful completion of the project had resulted in a study by the KRC to develop the Akumadan Rural Community and Integrated Irrigated Agricultural Project based on the Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement) principles of Korea, to inculcate nationalism and a sense of belongingness in the Akumadan community.

In his address, the Korean Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Kyun Jea-Min, said the new village movement that was implemented by the Koreans in the 1970s had helped them to achieve phenomenal economic growth and modernisation of rural communities.

“We believe that this monumental project will help generate income and alleviate poverty in the area, transfer advanced agricultural technologies, and build the capacity of technical staff and farmers involved in irrigation schemes in Ghana,” he said.