Govt approves $20m for expansion of Kpong irrigation scheme

Minister of Agriculture Dr. Bryan Acheampong has announced the approval of $20 million to expand the left bank of the Kpong Irrigation Scheme, which will be implemented by the Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP).

This comes after the government earlier pumped $20 million, which was under the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP) in 2011, to commence the Kpong Irrigation project which farmers in the Asutuare enclave, including Golden Exotic Company Limited benefit from.

The rehabilitation of the irrigation scheme is expected to further improve the water situation and help farmers in the enclave improve their yields.

Bryan Acheampong announced the approval during during a speech at a grand durbar to commemorate the 20th anniversary celebrations of Golden Exotic Company Limited, Ghana’s largest banana exporter, at Kasunya in Asutuare on Thursday, April 25.

 

“The people of this community must know that the government has pumped $20 million into the irrigation scheme around this area and I have also approved another $20 million to expand the left bank of the irrigation scheme in this area which is going to be implemented by the Food Systems Resilience Programme and that will amount to $40 million in this area alone.”

The Managing Director of Golden Exotic Company Limited, Benedict Rich, in an interview with Citi News intimated that the company has leveraged on drone technology to improve productivity.

“Drone technology has really advanced in the last few years and we have been trying it and a lot of the work that can be done by hand has now been done by aeroplanes and drones are just a gamechanger and we use them to apply fertilizer and use them to count the bananas and use them to monitor diseases.