Mr Kofi Humado, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, has reiterated the government’s commitment and determination to execute its “Better Ghana Agenda” by addressing the needs and problems facing the country.

He said the government would create income generating ventures while utilising every existing opportunity that had the tendency to alleviate poverty and improve the living conditions of the people.

Mr Humado gave the assurance at Dipali Irrigation Project site, a farming community in the Savelugu/Nanton Municipality where he inspected the Dipali irrigation scheme which the Ministry of Food and Agriculture under its Northern Rural Growth Project (NRGP) is reconstructing.

The government is reviewing and redesigning the Dipali Irrigation Scheme, which was constructed under the Small Scale Irrigation Development Project (SSIDP) of Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), and it is expected to cultivate various crops on a 170- hectare land when completed.

The redesigning is expected to be completed in March while procurement and award of contracts is also scheduled to be completed by July to pave way for construction to start in August.

Some 340 farmers as at 2009 registered to benefit from the scheme but the NRGP is expected to update the figures and carry out sensitisation prior to the construction, which is expected to be completed by March 2015.

Mr Humado said agriculture was the mainstay of Ghana’s economy and stressed the importance of focusing attention on activities that would improve farming in the country for increased food production to address poverty.

He commended the chiefs and people of the area for agreeing to release the land for the project and gave the assurance that government would not relent in its resolve to make life better especially in rural areas.

Alhaji Amidu Sulemani, the Minister of Roads and Highways, said the road would be constructed to the irrigation site to ensure that farmers conveyed their produce to marketing centres without problems.

He appealed to contractors who would work on the road and the irrigation scheme to complete them on schedule and that he would terminate contracts that would delay.

Mr Roy Ayariga, National Coordinator of the NRGP, said his outfit would ensure that the market was assessed before cultivating crops to avoid post harvest losses.

Some of the farmers complained about Fulani herdsmen whose cattle were destroying their water melon farms and appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to take measures to address the Fulani herdsmen menace.