By Minister of Agriculture Dr. Bryan Acheampong has disclosed the approval of $20 million for the expansion of the left bank of the Kpong Irrigation Scheme. This initiative will be executed by the Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP).
This decision follows the earlier injection of $20 million by the government, through the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP) in 2011, to kickstart the Kpong Irrigation project. Farmers in the Asutuare enclave, including Golden Exotic Company Limited, have benefited from this project.
The rehabilitation of the irrigation scheme is anticipated to enhance the water supply and assist farmers in the enclave in increasing their crop yields.
Bryan Acheampong made this announcement during his address at a grand durbar held 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.”
Benedict Rich, the Managing Director of Golden Exotic Company Limited, revealed in an interview with Citi News that the company has utilized drone technology to enhance 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.”
