500 hectares of rice, 40 hectares of banana farms submerged at Asutuare over dam spillage

Correspondence from Eastern Region:

The ongoing spillage of excess water from the Akosombo and Kpong Dams in the Eastern Region which has lasted for weeks has not only destroyed infrastructure and displayed large numbers of people, but the activity has also destroyed several hectares of farmlands as well as fishing activities.

At Asutuare in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region, the floods have submerged large hectares of banana and rice farms with most of the crops destroyed beyond recovery.

When GhanaWeb visited the community on Wednesday, October 17, 2023, to ascertain the extent of damage, it was observed that most of the food crops were submerged as the farmers waited for the water to recede to clear them for new planting.

Some farmers, who were seen walking through their submerged farms looked visibly worried and were apprehensive about what to even feed their families.

Some 450 rice farmers under the Kpong Irrigation Scheme at Asutuare are counting their losses following the destruction of hundreds of hectares of their sources of livelihood.

The opening of the Akosombo and Kpong dams weeks ago has left in its trail several farmlands submerged under the high volumes of water.

Explaining the extent of damage suffered by the farms, Charles Tetteh Hombey, Chairman of the Southern Low-Level Canal A Branch and General Secretary of the Water Users Association described the damage as “intensive.”

“The extent of damage in terms of the rice farms has been so intensive, in all we have a project of about 3,000 hectares where out of the 3,000 hectares, 2,700 is used for the rice cultivation and others are used for other agricultural purposes like aquaculture, vegetables, and others,” he explained.

According to him, the worst affected portion of the farm, which he identified as the section A side has 500 out of the 1,300 hectares submerged by the flood waters.

he further added that 100 hectares out of the 500 hectares of the submerged farms are made up of matured rice ready for harvesting. The situation, he added has deprived farmers of the needed harvest as it is impossible to harvest the crop in their current situation, leading to the destruction of the crops.

According to him, the affected farmers, cannot cultivate within the second crop season, adding that they can only wait for the next cropping season in early 2024 to continue their farming activities.

According to Mr. Hombey, the situation means the affected farmers are not in the best position to finance the next cropping season.

Appealing to the government to intervene to revamp the careers of the affected farmers, he appealed for inputs to assist the farmers in restarting their businesses.

The situation, he added means large quantities of rice are expected to hit the market from Asutuare, and having lost their farmlands, he fears the situation could pose some food security crisis for the country.

“This is the biggest irrigation scheme in the country and we also produce two times in a year, so it also tells you the number of rice we push onto the Ghanaian market and so as a result of this, a whole lot of quantity of rice coming from our end would not hit the market as expected which is also going to have a food security crisis for our country", he said.

Asked if the situation could increase the price of rice on the market, he answered: “It’s likely to have a food security impact and prices of rice would go higher because almost the inner valley along the Volta and then Kintampo, Brong-Ahafo areas who also produce the rice, you know some of these overflows also affected them.”

Impact of flooding on VREL banana farms:

At one of the Volta River Estates Limited (VREL) farms also located at Asutuare, about 40 out of the total of 120 hectares of farmland including fruits that were ready for harvesting have been submerged with a further 30 hectares inaccessible due to the water situation.

According to Ebenezer Dotse Narobi Jnr, Plantation Manager at VREL, the flood occurred two weeks after huge quantities of fertilizer had been applied on the farms.

Mr. Narobi speaking to GhanaWeb at the VREL farms at Asutuare explained that though the company was well aware of the impending spillage, VRA’s warning did not provide enough warning for such impact.

“We were told that they were going to open two or three spillways so the impact was not going to be huge only for us to come overnight and realize that all our pumps are flooded…since then we’ve not been able to pump water for the past three weeks", he said.

Explaining the situation he said, “As we speak, for the past three weeks, close to 40 hectares of the entire plantation is underwater and then about 30 hectares are not accessible, so you can just imagine, close to about 70 hectares of the farm is not available to us now and it’s been the story for the past two weeks.”

With bananas unable to survive for more than 72 hours in water, the submerged farms valued at several millions of Cedis which have been affected for weeks now, though still standing, have been destroyed.

According to him, the destruction would take the company about a year to recover the lost plantation.

“If the banana is submerged, after 72 hours, there’s nothing you can do, they’re dead living plants…we only wait for the water to recede after two or three weeks, we go and cut everything down, allow the land to dry, then replant and that should take us close to a year to be able to recover that very land,” he explained.

Though the situation does not immediately call for lay-offs, he said such action could not immediately be ruled out.

He called for an improvement in the country’s early warning systems to avert situations as this to save lives and properties.