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It is well that the government intends to tackle the problem of food production head on. From the budget presented to Parliament last week everybody was assured that the government will push the production of rice, poultry and fish to a higher level so that the importation of these items into the country will be drastically y reduced. That is well said. But there is a big difference between words and actions. We have had budgets in the past that spoke of using irrigation as the means of producing crops all year round in this country but the actualization of this noble idea has always been a problem. it can be said that we have no reason to be reliant on food imports into this country because almost all the countries from where we import food have the same climatic conditions as in Ghana. In addition, Ghana has volumes of water from rivers such as the Volta, the Densu, the Pra and others that empty their bowels into the sea wastefully. To add to that, Ghana has vast stretches of plain land in the three northern regions that can easily be used for mechanized farming and yet all these resources are not tapped. The Heritage wishes to advise that if the government really wishes to solve the problem of food production, then large scale irrigation is the answer. With irrigation, corn, which is the staple food for most Ghanaians and which by the way, is the major ingredient in poultry feed, can be grown on a large scale in the Accra plains and in the northern regions. On both sides of the Accra-Aflao road the green fields stretch as far as the eye can see and it will be a very rewarding venture if all those fields can be turned into corn fields. With irrigation corn can be grown in March and harvested in June followed by second cropping almost immediately, which will be harvested in September. The third and final cropping can be done in October and harvested later in the year. When corn is grown in abundance with the help of irrigation, poultry farmers will have no problem as to their supply of their major input. When the poultry industry also does well the price of the products will be affordable and parents may be able to give an egg a day to their children. The school feeding programme can also tap into this and use chicken products that will be churned out by the poultry farmers to feed the school children. With irrigation, rice can also be grown on scale much, much high than we have right now. This then will go a long way in cutting down rice imports and give jobs to our rice farmers. With irrigation, tomatoes including industrial tomatoes can be grown throughout the year to feed the factories. At the moment industrial tomato paste is imported from China and canned here which is a big indictment on us. It naturally portrays us as very lazy people which may not be the case. Our farmers only need a push and proper direction and all will be well with us. we have been able to do this before in the past with cocoa and we can do it again with all other crops. When Ghana was the leading exporter of cocoa in the world most of the farmers were illiterate but given the favourable conditions under which they operated they were able to chalk that success. The success chalked many years ago by our cocoa farmers can be repeated by present day farmers in other areas and it�s up to the government to lead the way. and we dare say irrigation is the surest way. We therefore throw the ball into the court of the government. Please act fast