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Prez warns encroachers to vacate govt lands or...

President Mahama inspecting the pump station at DawenyaPresident, Mr John Dramani Mahama has warned encroachers on government-acquired lands to vacate them or face eviction by the security agencies.

He said the government would not allow encroachers to take over government lands meant for agriculture and other development purposes.

For instance, he said, Sinohydro had won the bid for the Accra Plains Irrigation Project, which involved the irrigation of 10,000 hectares the plains.

Therefore, he said, all encroachers on the lands demarcated for the irrigation project and those occupying portions of the Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme in the Greater Accra Region would be evicted.

"The lands have been zoned for agriculture but not for residential purposes. People will lose property in the eviction but it is a step to ensure food security," he said.
President Mahama gave the warning last Saturday after inspecting the Dawhenya Irrigation Scheme in the Greater Accra Region.

The Dawhenya Irrigation Project was started in 1959 by the State Farms Corporation, which began rice cultivation in 1964 but abandoned the project in 1967. It has since gone through some developments.

The current irrigation scheme, which uses electrical pump and gravity to pump water from the Dawhe River to the canals in the farms, covers an area of 450 hectares. About 200 hectares have been developed and 150 hectares irrigated.

The Korean government provided a grant of $3.6 million to Ghana for the implementation of the Dawhenya irrigation scheme in 2011. It is being executed by the AFRO Engineering and Construction Limited.

Although the original purpose of the irrigation scheme was to grow high value vegetables for the Accra market, most of the present developed areas grow rice and a bit of maize and flowers. The National Service Scheme also has a maize farm there.

During the inspection of the pump station and the bio-natural farm, the Director of Operations of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), Mr James Akatse, informed the President that encroachers had taken over a significant portion of the land earmarked for the Dawhenya irrigation scheme and called for support to reclaim the land.

President Mahama assured managers of other projects that the government would not allow the activities of encroachers to frustrate government projects.

He said if lands meant for agricultural purposes were developed into residences, the country would suffer from food production deficit.

Touching on the Dawhenya irrigation scheme, President Mahama said he was happy that the project had come back to life.

He said the government would build a rice mill at Dawhenya to process the rice from the farms for the farmers "to get better value and price" for their produce.

Mr Akatse mentioned high electric tariff as one of the major challenges facing the project, since the pumping machine used electricity.

He requested the government to provide $6 million for the development of a dam at Dawhenya to add about 500 hectares to the irrigation project.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, said the irrigation scheme was strategic in terms of its potential to produce food to ensure food security in the country.

By Musah Yahaya Jafaru/Ghana

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