Meteorologist urges farmers to store water

Farmers in the country have been urged to construct dams that could harvest and store rainwater.

This would ensure that they have some back-up plans, in case the rainy season did not go as expected.

Mr Muller Tsatsu Siameh, Principal Meteorological Officer of the Ghana Meteorological Agency at the Kotoka International Airport, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.

He said crop failure which results from lack of rain could be prevented if farmers have store water.

Mr Michael Padi, Senior Meteorologist, said whilst the general practice is for farmers to depend on the rainy season in deciding when to start planting, it is always possible for some changes in the weather systems to disrupt the season.

Touching on this year’s first and major rainy season presently being experienced in the country, Mr Padi said it has been raining “but on a scattered basis”.

He said along the coast and the northern sector, the rain is falling but not very frequently and although the northern sector might have a rainfall or two, the sector is not yet in the rainy season.

Mr Padi said whilst it had rained heavily in the western sector, typically Takoradi and Axim, as well as other parts of the southern sector, the east coast had experienced long dry spells.

“We expect more rains within the coastal sector within this month of May,” he said.

Mr Padi said there is hope for farmers who need more rainfall for their crops.

He said apart from more rains being expected in May within the coastal sector, June is the peak of the major rainy season, “when we expect heavy continuous rains”.