Farmers laud rehabilitation of Tono Irrigation Scheme - Project to increase paddy rice by 33%
Two farmers who are engaged in the cultivation of rice and maize, Robert Kwame Abokah and Tonose Adoliba, have both stated that when the canals of the Tono Irrigation Scheme got damaged it caused huge losses of water through leakages, hence beneficiary farmers could not utilise water effectively to produce more.
They are, however, of the view that as the damages to the canals have been repaired, water delivery and productivity will increase when work is finally completed.
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Indeed, according to projections made it is expected that yields of paddy rice will increase from 4.5 tonnes to 6 tonnes per hectare (up by about 33 per cent). This will eventually translate into an annual production of 19,359 metric tonnes of paddy rice and will help reduce rice importation.
The annual production of paddy rice is expected to in turn generate a gross revenue of GH¢32 million (at an average rate of GH¢1.65 per kilogramme). At an expected farm budget of GH¢5,773 per hectare per season, the net income for the farmers per hectare has been projected to be GH¢4,127 per season or GH¢8,254 per annum at two cropping cycles per year.
Also, beneficiary farmers are expected to increase from the current 2,300 to 4,000 farmers. Additionally, about 12,500 direct farm jobs are expected to be created as well as indirect jobs such as marketing, milling, haulage and sorting, among others, within the value chain.
Seasonal migration among the youth in the catchment area to seek greener pastures elsewhere is likely to also reduce as a result of the TIS.
Completion of work on the scheme is also expected to improve the creation of more direct and indirect jobs, improve standard of living and the rural economy. It will also facilitate better adaptation to climate change.
Specific benefits of the scheme include intensification in the cultivation of paddy rice, tomatoes and soya beans.
Impressions
Giving his impressions about the ongoing work after the 28th Progress and Technical Meeting held at Tono last week Friday, the Operations Manager of the Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project (GCAP), Mr Philip Daniel Laryea, said “To ensure sustainable utilisation of the scheme and post rehabilitation benefits, the scheme operator, ICOUR Limited, has been strengthened and repositioned to perform the management, operations and maintenance (MOM).”
To this end, he said GCAP had rehabilitated the offices of ICOUR, funded capacity building of staff and provided logistical support such as vehicles and office equipment to facilitate ICOUR's work.
The farmers, Mr Laryea further explained, had also been constituted into 17 Water User associations (WUAs) in accordance with L.I. 2230 (2016). The WUAs will, among others, assist ICOUR in managing the scheme for which their capacity building was ongoing.
“The mechanisms we have put in place should ensure the scheme's sustainable utilisation and post rehabilitation benefits to beneficiaries, stakeholders and the country as a whole," he further assured.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Engineering of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), Mr Stephen Maclean, said: “I am pleased with where we have reached so far regarding the rehabilitation work and hopefully, the farmers will get back to the field and increase yield and income levels; generally, the living conditions of farmers will improve."
The Zonal Coordinator and Senior Rural Infrastructure Engineer of GCAP, Mr Bloomfield C. Attipoe, for his part observed that when the rehabilitation was completed it would afford the country the opportunity to improve on agricultural practices and methods of farming to increase productivity in the sector.
Service providers
Service providers and partners involved in the execution of the project include the Technical Partner and Regulator- GIDA and the Scheme Operator-ICOUR Limited. The rest are the Supervising Consultant - Messrs WAPCOS Limited, an Indian government consultancy firm providing consultancy services in the fields of water resources, power and infrastructure.
The Contractor for the TIS is Messrs Top International Engineering Corporation and the automation sub-contractor is Messrs Mechatronics Limited.
The Upper East Regional Department of Agriculture, the Kassena Nankana Municipal and Builsa North District assemblies are also involved in the project.
Original works that were completed and handed over in June 2021, comprise rehabilitation of the irrigation and drainage infrastructure, including roads.
The introduction of automation and instrumentation of operations has also been significantly completed. Subsequently, the TIS is now opened for use by beneficiary farmers in the scheme's catchment area.
However, it is expected that within one year, the rehabilitated project will be observed by all stakeholders to help rectify any deficiencies which may occur, for repairs before it is finally handed over to the beneficiary farmers and other stakeholders for use.
Additional work made up of reconstruction of the spillway channel and ancillary work is 85 per cent complete and barring any further hitches it will be completed by the end of October 2021.
GCAP
The rehabilitation and modernisation of the TIS is being undertaken by the Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project (GCAP), a World Bank/Government of Ghana funded project under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
GCAP’s project development objective (PDO) is to, among other things, improve agricultural production and productivity of both smallholder and nucleus farmers in selected project intervention areas in Ghana.
As part of its mandate, GCAP is currently rehabilitating the three large public irrigation schemes, namely, the Tono Irrigation Scheme (TIS) in the Upper East Region, the Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Project (KLBIP) in the Volta Region and the Kpong Irrigation Scheme (KIS) in the Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
The rehabilitation and modernisation of the TIS started on October 16, 2018. However, about 12 months into the 18-month construction period, the spillway channel of the dam got damaged after continuous heavy rain and spillage events in October 2019.
Since work on the spillway was not part of the initial rehabilitation contract it had to be considered as additional works for which GCAP had to look for funds to execute them.
Scheme
The TIS was started in 1975 and completed in 1985. The 3.147 kilometres long dam wall, constructed across the Tono River has created a reservoir covering 1,860 hectares of land with a maximum capacity of 93 million cubic meters of water.
It was designed as a dual-purpose dam for irrigation and domestic water supply. The domestic water supply aspect of the project is now being executed.
The TIS is mainly a gravity scheme, meaning water is released from a higher elevation to irrigate lands at lower levels.
However, out of the 2,490 hectares net irrigable area, 359 hectares is irrigated by means of pumping water from canals as it is on higher ground than the canals.
Since its completion in 1985, the ongoing rehabilitation work has been the most comprehensive work to be carried out.
Key features of additional work on the spillway channel and ancillary work include redesigning and reconstruction of the spillway channel, which is about 500 meters long with an average width of 50 meters, made up of a concrete channel and concrete walls on either side.
Another work involves desilting and redirection of the main drain of the Tono River. Here, 22 kilometers out of the planned 30 kilometers of the Tono River within the scheme has been desilted, redirected and widened to 10 meters width at the base.
There is also an ongoing repair of cracks on the Spillway Weir body and wing walls. Reconstruction and re-gravelling of the road and culvert at the base of the dam wall are also being done.
Key rehabilitation features
Original work on the TIS has been divided into two areas — civil works and automation/instrumentation. While the civil works involve rehabilitation and construction of the irrigation as well as drainage infrastructure, including roads and ancillary work, the automation/ instrumentation refers to modernisation of the scheme through installation of equipment for water control and the volumetric measurement of water used by farmers within the canal system.
Under civil works, the construction include rehabilitation and relining of 42 kilometers of the main canal with concrete. Other works are the reconstruction and concrete lining of 85 kilometers of lateral and sub-lateral canals (small canals that take water directly to farmers’ fields).
Re-gravelling of 32 kilometers of road network within the scheme area and the production and installation of 149 gates (mechanism for control and distribution of water within the canal system) are part of the works. The construction of 2,454 farm inlets (canal openings) into farmers’ fields are included in the construction.
Two sets of solar water pumping system with a total solar energy of 358 Kilowatts peak (KWp) to enhance irrigation of the 359 hectares of upland area (an area earmarked for small holder and commercial farmers) have been installed.
The installed solar water pumps will provide cheap source of energy and lead to the cultivation of 359 hectares of land which was left uncropped for over 15 years due to high electricity tariffs from electric pumps.
The scheme's rehabilitation and modernisation will eventually lead to efficiency and reduction in water losses. Therefore, the irrigation company in the Upper East Region, ICOUR Limited, will be able to achieve at least two cropping cycles per year.
It is also worthy to note that about 500 skilled and unskilled labour have been employed so far during the construction period.
In the area of automation and instrumentation, the manufacturing and installation of 104 gates (for water control and distribution within the main canal system) have been completed. Ten of them are fully automated, whilst the remaining 94 are partially automated.
The gates will be controlled remotely by a software known as SCADA from a Master Control Centre (MCC). The field installations are powered by means of solar energy.
Construction of the MCC building, tower mast for mounting of antennae to facilitate communication remotely, has been completed. Additionally, electrical refurbishment of the existing dam outlet is to be done to enhance remote control from the MCC facility.
