WUZDA – Ghana has as part of its Bucket Drip Irrigation Project engaged beneficiary farmers in its operational districts.
The bucket drip irrigation project by WUZDA – Ghana is being implemented in six communities in the Savelugu/ Nanton Municipality, Sagnarigu District and Tamale Metropolitan, all in the Northern Region.
The project seeks to empower households in the farming value chain to be able to produce crops that can stand the test of market, thereby helping improve their livelihood.
The bucket drip irrigation system is to ensure that the usage of water by household vegetable growers is managed well and to ensure the crops get the right amount of water to grow to match the quality and quantity standards.
WUZDA – Ghana as part of the project connects the vegetable growers in the operational districts with the right market to meet the demand of the particular vegetables being cultivated.
Some of the vegetables the households are encouraged to grow include cabbage, salad, okra and other local vegetables known widely in those communities.
Speaking at the stakeholder engagement forum where community members were taken through strategies to ensure good yield, Programme Manager for WUZDA Ghana, Mr. Abdul Karim Ziblim admonished the farmers to embrace the initiative as their own and not just another intervention by an NGO.
He told them to desist from paying attention to detractors whose only aim would be to discourage them from achieving for themselves what the initiative is intended.
The difficulty in accessing land was widely discussed where the farmers raised issues surrounding how pieces of land they use in farming are encroached upon for reasons that they do not own them.
Mr. Abdul Karim however implored them not to lose focus and that those issues would be discussed at the organizational level and further discussed with them, to find a better way of ensuring land security does not become a hindrance to the whole initiative.
On his part, the officer in charge of the project, Mr. John Adams charged the farmers to take advantage of the initiative to improve their living standards.
He said the doors of the team are always open to anyone who has a problem regarding the workings of the system and needs any clarity.
Some of the farmers expressed their happiness about the initiative and recounted how the project has come to help them manage and save water for other use. They also opened up about how better their vegetables look now with the introduction of the bucket drip irrigation, compared to when they were engaged in the old practices.
WUZDA Ghana 