The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is taking measures to boost dry season farming in the Upper East Region, so as to ensure food security and put an end to the perennial food shortages in the area.
Farmers are being encouraged and guided to form groups so that they would be collectively guided and given support in the form of technical advice, improved seed and other credit facilities that would enable them increase their yield.
The tomato farmers are presently negotiating with the Northern Star Tomato Factory so that they would know how much the factory would buy from them to enable them plan towards the production.
Dry season farmers in the region cultivate tomatoes, onion, green vegetables and fruits in the melon class, as well as rice and maize.
Alhaji Salifu Abdul-Razaq Ziblim, Acting Regional Director, MOFA, speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, explained that rain fed Agriculture had always failed farmers in the region and caused the people to suffer food shortages a few months after harvesting the rainy season crops.
This, he said encouraged MOFA to advocate for the building of dams and the rehabilitation of old ones in the region to promote irrigation and large scale production.
He said plans were far advanced to adopt drip irrigation, which economises water and would give farmers a good chance to use small bodies of water for their crops.
Mr. Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, said having more dams in the region was welcome news, �Only irrigation can help us, it is our salvation�, he added.
He called on people in the region to watch out for those who would try to smuggle out fertilizers, because it is cheaper in the country, and report all such criminals to the appropriate authorities.
Speaking on investments in the Region, Mr. Woyongo asked district assemblies to acquire land banks so that they would be prepared for investors who would need large tracts of land for agricultural purposes.
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