Farmers in several communities in the Upper West Region heaved a sigh of relief when a moderate rainfall on Monday night rekindled their hopes for a better farming season after three weeks of drought.
Prior to the rainfall early crops like maize, some of which were tussling and maturing, were all withering.
Most of them are waiting to plant millet which most farmers in the Wa Municipality in particular had adopted for large scale cultivation because it is drought resistant and does well on poor soils.
Mr. Badeu Danaa, a farmer at Sing in the Wa Municipality, told the Ghana News Agency that he would have to destroy his one-acre maize farm that had been destroyed by the drought, uproot the stalks and look for new seeds for planting.
"We have heard of floods elsewhere in the country which sustained our hopes that we will also get our share of the rains but things are currently looking gloomy for us," he said.
" My brother last year by this time we had started harvesting beans and sending it to the market for sale which is not so this year leading to severe hunger for some people", Mr Danaa said.
Mr. Adamu Seidu, another farmer, said due to early rains yams geminated very well but the prospects for bumper harvests of the crop were being dampened by the drought.
He said there was the need for northern Ghana to be provided with small scale irrigation schemes to take the area out of rain-fed agriculture.
Madam Mariama Osuman, a tomato farmer, said every year they relied on their tomato gardens in the valleys to support their families during the
lean season.
She said due to the prolonged drought, harvest had been very poor leading to its scarcity and a sharp rise in the price of the commodity in the Wa central market.
She appealed to the government to build small irrigation schemes in the valleys to reverse their over-dependence on the rains.