In a working tour to the northern part of the country, under the SLWMP, the Minister said the project fits well into government’s flagship programmes of ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’, ‘One District One Factory’ and the ‘One village One Dam’, amongst others, and that, he was going to lobby with other Ministries to provide the community with a factory and a dam.

He said water is paramount to the success of the SLWM Project, so he would coordinate with government to provide the community with a dam under the One Village One Dam as a catalyst for the Project.

The farmers offered soya beans “Khebab”, to the Minister and his team as evidence of what they can produce. The Minister said farmers had raised many concerns, including lack of potable water, lack of CHIPS Compounds, bushfires, and lack of roads linking communities to farms among others as obstacles against the success of the project and that, he was going to coordinate with other agencies to solve those problems.

He was impressed at the manner in which farmers, who received training under SLWM Project were applying technology on their farms to boost crop production and to control bushfires.He said the project was aimed at making Ghana a ‘food basket’ of the West Africa sub-region.

“For the past two years Ghana has been exporting food items to neighbouring countries such as Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso,” he said.  Sharing his experience, Mr Tahiru Idrisu, one of the beneficiaries said the programme has sensitized them on bushfire prevention, prevention of soil erosion, restoration of soil fertility, conservation of moisture on farmlands, afforestation, amongst others.

He said his group’s ten acre mango and cashew plantation farms planted alongside with food crops, which the Minister inspected during the visit, was a living testimony of the project and called for government support to increase production.