A ground-breaking ceremony at Adutor on Wednesday to begin 27.44 kilometers of feeder roads criss-crossing communities along the Avu Lagoon has set the stage for agriculture led economic transformation of the area.
The vast plains along the fresh water Avu Lagoon, located in the South Tongu and Keta districts, are mainly cultivated with sugar caneand vegetables and have the potential for rice production.
The project is funded by Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) with cash from the Millennium Challenge Corporation under the Transport Project of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Ghana Programme.
The bituminous surface rehabilitation would cover the Sogakope-Adiokpe, Adutor-Junction-Bekpo, Dabala-Lakpo-Agbakope and the Woe-Tegbi-Ashiata roads.
Mr Joe Gidisu, Minister of Roads and Highways, said in a speech read for him that the roads would provide the fluid linkages between crop production zones and marketing centres.
Prof Samuel K. Sefa-Dedeh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of (MiDA), said the road works were in line with the MiDA objective of supporting "farming and related economic activities in rural communities and thereby reduce the incidence of poverty in the selected communities across the three intervention zones in the country".
He observed that agriculture was not a "stand alone activity, the project therefore "brings together various sectors of the economy, which are directly related and have an impact in agriculture".
Madam Agnes Gagblezu, a retired Crops Production Officer of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) with a good knowledge of
agricultural practices in the area, told the Ghana News Agency that the largely untapped irrigation potentials of the area needed to be tackled to raise the production there.
She said production strategists must design methods to take advantage of yearly floods which cover the area for most parts of the raining season.
Madam Gagblezu said currently farmers wait for the floods to recede before cropping.
She said many people in the area were not aware of its potentials for rice cultivation and fish farming and the existence of international markets for vegetables.
Mr Felix Amewode, Chairman of the Atitekpo Farming Group, said technical training and credit given by MiDA could significantly raise incomes of members of the group.
He said members of the Group needed help to purchase water pumping systems for all-year cropping.