‘1 Village 1 Dam’ cannot be completed within 4-years – Agric Minister

Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Agriculture Minister, has admitted that the Akufo-Addo-led government cannot complete one of its flagship programmes One-Village-One-Dam with its four-year mandate.

This policy from the government, the Agric Minister indicated, is an expensive venture which requires time to effectively implement.

“A lot of these policies you don’t expect instant results. You know in the savannah areas or the north, the rainfall is only three to four months in the year. So the rest of the year, for seven, eight months, people are only sitting down doing nothing. That’s the essence of the irrigation,” he told journalists at the Academy of Art and Science on Tuesday.

He added that the project as it stands now is very complicated which does not make its development take shape instantly.

The One-Village-One-Dam policy is a flagship policy by the ruling party to improve irrigation into the agric sector all year round.

Some Ghanaians who think this project is a laudable idea ended up hailing the government whilst others have criticized the implementation describing some of the dams as unfit for purpose.

But Dr Owusu Afriyie explained that “the irrigation is very expensive and restrictive. Four years is not enough. For instance, I want to make Ghana sufficient in rice. There is no way you can do that in four years.

He is, therefore, praying that Ghanaians will retain the current administration come December 7 to continue with the dam infrastructure they have initiated in the northern part of the country.