Nervous moments for farmers in Upper West

Wa, July 7, GNA - Farmers in several communities in the Upper West Region heaved a sigh of relief when a moderate rainfall on Monday night rekindled their hopes for a better farming season after three weeks of drought. Prior to the rainfall early crops of maize, some of which were tussl ing and maturing, were all withering. Most of them are waiting to plant millet which most farmers in the W a Municipality in particular had adopted for large scale cultivation becaus e it was drought resistant and did well on poor soils.

Mr Badeu Danaa, a farmer at Sing in the Wa Municipality, told the Gh ana News Agency that he would have to destroy his half-hectare maize farm tha t had been destroyed by the drought and look for new seeds to plant. "We have heard of floods elsewhere in the country, which sustained o ur hopes that we will also get our share of the rains but things are current ly looking gloomy for us," he said. " My brother last year by this time we had started harvesting beans a nd sending it to the market for sale but it is not so this year leading to severe hunger for some people", Mr Danaa said. Mr Adamu Seidu, another farmer, said due to early rains yams geminate d very well but the prospects for bumper harvests of the crop were being dampened by the drought. He said there was the need for Northern Ghana to be provided with small- scale irrigation schemes to stop the area's dependence on rain-fed

agriculture.

Madam Mariama Osuman, a tomato farmer, said every year they relied o n their tomato gardens in the valleys to support their families during the lean season. She said due to the prolonged drought, harvest had been very poor leading to its scarcity and a sharp rise in the price of the commodity in

the Wa Central Market. She appealed to the Government to build small irrigation schemes in t he valleys to stop their over-dependence on the rains.