Efforts to get Farmers in the Upper East Region to do all year round farming, is gradually achieving some gains, with the latest improvement being, the shift from the “Rain-fed” and Large Dam Irrigation, to Drip and Sprinkle Irrigation Systems.
With this Systems water goes directly to the crops and in small quantities, so that, the crops get the exact water they need to grow. With this Systems the crops are not over watered and so essential nutrients are not washed away from the roots of the crops.
Though Drip and Sprinkle Irrigations systems have existed for some time in Northern Ghana, they have been on small scale farms and in many cases, they have been used on pilot project sites of Research Institutions.
The Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) in Manga in the Bawku Municipality, has improved on the existing Drip and Sprinkle Irrigation Systems so as to make it easier to construct on large scale farms for effective farming and for farmers to be able to pay for the construction according to their needs.
Per this intervention, farmers in the Upper East Region, who have adopted this System, specifically those in Bawku, in the Bawku Municipality, will gradually be shifting from the use of heavy Water Pumps to draw water from far and near dams into their farms for cultivation.
Apart from being tedious and requiring more surface water presence, the Water Pump System comes with a high operational cost and gets a large volume of water going waste.
Though many people in the Upper East Region are into farming, the region per its location, does not get rains falling as many times as farmers desire to enable them farm all year round.
In recent times, even the few months that the region gets some rains have also seen some changes, resulting in some irregular rainfall patterns, thereby affecting crop yield as well as the desire of many people, especially the youth, to stay in crop farming.
Before the introduction of the new System of Irrigation to the Bawku Area, Farmers there, especially Dry Season Vegetable Farmers, farmed close to water bodies and were dependent on the Water Pumps as well as small water containers, to fetch water from dug-outs to water their crops.
With an initial investment of GHc6,000.00 a farmer can get these Systems constructed on a farm and can make up to GHc60, 000.00 from sales of crops from a one acre of land, according to Savanna Agriculture Research Institute Trainers.
According to the SARI Trainers, these Systems require a fewer labour hands than the Water-Pump and Watering Can System and does not waste water.
Over the weekend, some Farmers were trained by SARI on the use of the  Drip and Sprinkle Irrigation Systems and were impressed with the volume of water used in watering their fields and the fact that, they can water their crops as a when they want to and with the volume of water their crops require.
A Savanna Agriculture Research Institute Research Manager at Bawku, Dr. Francis Kusi said the new Irrigation Systems was introduced to the area with the intention of encouraging all year round farming, as well as to attract the Youth into Agriculture and to take advantage of the Government’s “Planting For Food” policy.
He advised Farmer Groups to adopt these Systems, especially when many of the water bodies in the Upper East Region and the whole of Northern are drying up.
Dr. Francis Kusi, like many others, believes there is so much water underground and wants the farmers to make use of the underground water through the Drip and Sprinkle Irrigation Systems, since that practice will help save the various water bodies for future generations.
From: Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bawku