GENERAL BACKGROUND DATA

LIST OF ACRONYMS

1. PERSONS MET

2. IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT: GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND STRATEGIES

2.1 Decentralization Policy

2.2 Reorganization of Agricultural Extension Services

2.3 Irrigated Agriculture Development

2.4 Privatization of Development

2.5 Ponds, Dugouts and Reservoirs

2.6 Integrated Pest Management

3. INSTITUTIONS OF INTEREST MAINLY INVOLVED IN RESEARCH AND/ORTRAINING

3.1 Water Research Institute

3.2 Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research

3.3 Irrigation Company for the Upper Regions

3.4 Research and Training in Fisheries and Related Sciences

4. INSTITUTIONS AND PROJECTS OF INTEREST MAINLY INVOLVED IN DEVELOPMEN

4.1 Department of Fisheries

4.2 Irrigation Development Authority

4.3 Irrigation Company for the Upper Regions

4.4 Project for the Development of Support Structure for Irrigated Agriculture

4.5 FAO Special Programme for Food Security

5. CONCLUSIONS

5.1 Positive Factors

5.2 Existing Constraints

5.3 Recommended Research Institution

6. LITERATURE CONSULTED

1. PERSONS MET

Since 1988, the Government of Ghana (GOG) has introduced decentralization, establishing within the existing 10 administrative Regions (Figure 1) 110 Districts to become focal points for local development. Since then, considerable legislative power has been given to the District Assemblies which have become the second highest legislative body in the country. Assembly decisions are to be executed by the district administration and 22 decentralized government departments.

Each year, 10 per cent of the national budget is attributed to the District Assemblies to support local development, the agriculture sector (incl. fisheries) receiving 20 per cent of this allocation

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) is being completely restructured with assistance from the Agricultural Services Investment Project (ASIP) financed by the World Bank (WB). The latter also finances the National Agricultural Extension Project (NAEP) responsible for reorganizing and reinforcing the MOFA Department of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES). Main activities involve:

• the establishment of a unified extension system in which agriculture extensionists (Frontline Staff - FLS) are polyvalent and responsible for delivering to the rural population messages related to all disciplines relevant to development, such as crops, animal husbandry, human health, capture fisheries and fish farming. Subject Matter Specialists (SMS) should be available at Region and District levels to support the FLS.
• the training of FLS and SMS at Region/District levels
• the establishment of Research - Extension Linkage Committees responsible for the two-way flow of information between farmers, extension staff and researchers.

Irrigated agriculture development has been given high priority by GOG for some years. Such priority has been reiterated in the Medium-Term Agricultural Development Plan (1991 - 2000), which also specifies the strategy to be applied for sustainable irrigation agriculture. It includes:

• reduction of operating costs;
• completion of the development of existing irrigation schemes;
• focus on small-scale (less than 100 ha) and micro-scale (a few ha) irrigation schemes;
• giving priority to schemes, mainly rice, with water control in seasonally inundated areas and valley bottoms;
• favouring management of small-scale irrigation schemes by the farmers themselves through the establishment of Cooperative Societies or Farmers Associations;
• promoting expansion of rice growing areas and intensification to meet increasing local demand.

It is envisaged to support only a limited number of small-scale farmers nuclei (training, transferred technology, inputs...).

Each of these nuclei would then become responsible for supporting the development of neighbouring farmers at reasonable costs, transferring technology, providing inputs and support services, and assisting them to market their production.

According to long standing GOG policy, each irrigation scheme should allocate at least five percent of the irrigable land area to fish ponds. Such policy has resulted in the construction of several, relatively large fish farms which are managed by the Department of Fisheries (Section 4.1) and/or by the agency managing the irrigation scheme, such as ICOUR for example (Section 3.3).

In the Northern part of Ghana where long dry seasons and single unreliable rainy seasons prevail, a programme of construction of dugouts and small reservoirs (dams) has been implemented over the past years to provide reliable water supplies to the local rural communities. These surface water collection systems are now widespread throughout the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions where they have become a vital part of the infrastructure of the local communities.

Until recently access to the stored water and to its resources such as fish has been free. Now, members of each local community who use the dugout or small reservoir for example for domestic needs, livestock watering, crop irrigation or fishing, have been regrouped into a Water Users Association. Non-members of this association have to pay a fee to have access to the water/fish resources.

Integrated pest management (IPM) has been declared a national policy for protecting crops, in particular irrigated rice in paddy fields.

Recent rice-cum-fish culture experiments in the Tono Irrigation Scheme by ICOUR (Section 3.3) and the Institute of Aquatic Biology (now part of WRI, Section 3.1) have shown how rice production is greatly increased if lateral water filled trenches are present to control rats (Kumah et al., 1996). From previous experience, it is also known that the presence of fish in paddy fields contributes to the control of rice stem-borers and other pests, including malaria mosquitoes and possibly snails (schistosomiasis hosts).

3.1 Water Research Institute

Head Office: P. O. Box 38, Achimota - Tel. (21) 775351 - Fax (21) 777170 email: [email protected]

Field Stations: Tamale Field Station, P.O. Box 695, Tamale - Tel. 071-23448. Aquaculture Research/Development Centre: P.O. Box 139, Akosombo - Tel. 0251-305

Establishment: The Water Research Institute (WRI) was established by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in July 1996. It was created by merging two of its former institutes, the Institute of Aquatic Biology (IAB) and the Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI), to further integrate water and water-resources related research.

Organization: as shown in Figure 2. The Fishery Research Division is made of the Capture Fisheries Section (lagoons, reservoirs, wetlands and rivers) and the Aquaculture Section (see below).

Mandate/Functions: To undertake research into all aspects of water resources in order to provide scientific and technical information services needed for the sustainable development, utilization and management of the resources in support of the socio-economic development for all sectors of the country, including Agriculture/Fisheries, Health, Industry, Energy, Transportation, Education and Tourism.

Examples of WRI functions of interest:

• carry out and coordinate research in all aspects of water resources development;
• assess research needs in the water sector and prioritize them;
• study/monitor ecological factors and productivity of reservoirs;
• develop the scientific basis for aquaculture practices.

• Water resources policy, planning and management;
• Studies on inland water systems;
• Culture fisheries and aquaculture development:

• Establishment of locally adaptable technical base for increased fish culture production;
• Fish seed production (Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus);
• Integration of aquaculture and irrigation:
• fish farming in paddy fields (rizipisciculture and rotation);
• valley bottoms development (fish in rice and vegetables on pond dykes above water table);
• collaboration with the Crop Research Institute, Kumasi University, and with the Department of Fisheries (Afife Irrigation Scheme: rice and ponds rented to farmers);
• Culture potential of Macrobrachium vollenhoveni;
• Development of fish feed from local agricultural products and by-products;
• Tilapia genetic resources for their future conservation and management (in coll. ICLARM/Hamburg University/GTZ).

Affiliation

WRI is affiliated to a number of international organizations:

• WHO Centre for screening microbial agents for biological control and Specialist Training Centre for West African Scientists in Hydrobiology and Fisheries;
• FAO/IOC/IAEA/UNEP Supported Centre for Monitoring Marine and Coastal Pollution;
• African Centre for ICLARM Fishbase;

WRI also hosts the Secretariats of:

• Ghana National Committee for International Hydrology and Water Resources Programmes;
• Ghana National Commission for IOC/UNESCO.

WRI Research Library and Documentation Centre: in-house database and network database GAINS (Ghana Agricultural Information Network Systems). Aquaculture resources to be transferred to ARDEC in 1998 after construction of its own library.

The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) is the research arm of the Faculty of Social Studies, University of Ghana (Legon near Accra), where its professional staff also lectures.

Its main activities are:

• to serve as the centre for comprehensive and sustained fundamental and applied research in the field of the social sciences, to establish the basic information essential for effective socio-economic development;
• to coordinate and integrate the many fields of research in the social sciences;
• to disseminate research findings and other forms of pertinent knowledge to practitioners in the field of social/economic development.

It is organized into five Divisions for Statistics, Social, Economics, Planning and Demography fields of research.

Funding by GOG is limited to the salaries (12 professionals and some support staff) and to operating expenses. Research is mostly funded by national and international agencies. Research contracts and consultancies also greatly contribute to support it.

The Irrigation Company for the Upper Regions (ICOUR) is mostly involved in agricultural development and somewhat in fishery/aquaculture development as described in details in Section 4.3.

But at Tono, Upper East Region, ICOUR has also a well-managed and well-designed fish farming research station (Vincke and Awity, 1990) with a total of nine ponds of 1000m² each. Nile tilapia fingerlings are regularly produced and sold to farmers. It is in collaboration with this research station that rizipisciculture trials have been carried out recently (Kumah et al., 1996) by ARDEC/WRI (Section 3.1).

Until now three universities have been involved in research and training in fishery biology, aquaculture, sociology, economics, etc.:

• University of Ghana, in Legon near Accra;
• University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi;
• Cape Coast University.

A new university has been created recently in Tamale (Northern Region) as the University of Development Studies to focus on agricultural, social and economic aspects of development.

4.1.1 Organization

The Department of Fisheries belongs to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). During the past five years, its importance has steadily increased following recognition by government that it had a role to play in improving people’s nutrition and in alleviating poverty in rural areas. As fish landings from artisanal marine fisheries are rather limited (about 400 000 t/year), the development of inland fisheries, in particular culture-based fisheries and aquaculture, is now considered to be vital.

There are five Divisions: Marine Fisheries, Marine Fisheries Research, Inland Fisheries, Monitoring/Control and Administration. To support inland fisheries development, there is at least one professional staff in each region, assisted by technical officers. Following the MOFA reorganization (Section 2.2), Subject Matter Specialists for culture-based fisheries and/or for aquaculture will be needed at district level. Front line agriculture staff will have to be trained in these subjects also.

4.1.2 Aquaculture development

The 1990 survey of government/parastatal fish farms associated with irrigation schemes (Section 2.5) showed that most of this infrastructure was either abandoned or hardly used, due to faulty site selection/design or bad management by incompetent personnel (Vincke and Awity, 1990).

Today, there are five active government/parastal fish farms which produce fingerlings, mostly Nile tilapias and some African catfishes. These are the fish farms integrated into the irrigation schemes at Tono, Vea, Bontanga, Afife and Dalwhenya (Figure 1).

On several of these farms, ponds are rented to local small-scale irrigation farmers who have access to credit for the necessary aquaculture inputs and obtain support services from fisheries staff or parastatal agency staff (for example, ICOUR, Section 4.3).

Lately, fish farming development has been reactivated in some irrigation schemes, particularly in the Greater Accra Region at Afife and Dawhenya. Both paddy fields (rizipisciculture or fish/rice in rotation) and fish ponds are being used by some farmers for fish production . Although they are located close to the artisanal coastal fishery, there is no problem to market the fish produced which are generally sold on farm.

4.1.3 Culture-based fisheries

As seen previously (Section 2.5), one of the major problems in Northern Ghana is scarcity of water. Various technical solutions have been implemented such as boreholes, hand-dug wells, dugouts and small reservoirs (dams). But high construction costs of surface water collection systems for domestic purposes can only be economically justified if multiple use of the water is ensured, including dry-season gardening, improved livestock management, agro-forestry, fish production and even, indirectly, aforestation of catchment areas.

The 1990 survey has identified 1443 ha of water bodies smaller than 4 ha each, of which 1 022 ha in the Northern Region alone (MacPherson et al., 1990). Among the IDA-monitored reservoirs/dugouts in the same region, permanent water is present in all large reservoirs (12), in 88 percent of the medium reservoirs (24), in 59 percent of the small reservoirs (115) and in 25 percent of the dugouts (12). Where these water bodies serve as sole source of drinking water, regular fishing is usually not permitted (24 percent of the Northern Region water bodies). An organized general fish-out takes place just before all water disappears in 56 percent of the water bodies.

As the Northern Region rural communities are amongst the poorest in Ghana, they can gain considerable additional income and/or nutritional benefits from fishing in dugouts and reservoirs.

Now that Water Users Associations (Section 2.5) are responsible for the management of their water bodies, some have started buying fingerlings for stocking, mostly from government/parastatal fish farms, to enhance their fisheries.

4.1.4 Coordination fisheries - irrigation

As already clearly stated a few years ago (MacPherson et al., 1990), coordination between the Department of Fisheries and other GOG institutions, in particular those involved in the development/management of irrigation schemes and in fishery research, appears to be lacking.

In the past, this absence of involvement of the Department of Fisheries in the development of irrigation schemes from the planning stage has greatly handicapped the development of valuable fish farms (see above). On some other occasions, this has led dam-design engineers to neglect fishery development potential completely.

The Irrigation Development Authority (IDA) is the parastatal entity of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture actually responsible for :

• the management of 22 irrigation schemes of which two (Tono and Vea) are managed by ICOUR (Section 3.3) and one has been handed over to the Dawhenya Cooperative Food Farming Society;
• the rehabilitation of existing irrigation schemes, for example 44 dams (500 ha irrigated) in the Upper East Region;
• the preliminary studies (surveys/designs) and the construction supervision for new schemes, including now Kpong (3089 ha, AfDB), Aframso (IFAD) and Esubonpao (IFAD);
• the studies to develop small-scale irrigation projects (e.g., 2800 ha in the north and 1600 ha in the south) and valley bottom projects (e.g. Western Region, EU);
• research (esp. water management) and training (extensionists/farmers), through its Irrigation Development Centre (IDC) located at Ashiaman (ab. 30 km NE Accra) and financially assisted by JICA.

The developed area totals 6374 ha of which 3100 ha (wet season), 2800 ha (dry season) and 1700 ha (wet/dry seasons) are cultivated, involving about 9300 farmers.

The present organigram of IDA (de Nooy, 1996) is shown in Figure 3. Two of the senior engineers were trained at the FAO/ADCP Training Course in Aquaculture Engineering (Budapest, 1983). There is a need for more junior engineers to be specialized in fish farm design/construction in view to be able to better assist the Department of Fisheries to integrate fisheries into future irrigation schemes.

Present IDA regulations for the management of irrigation schemes and the involvement of farmers are being reviewed to allow stronger representation and participation of the farmers and their associations, in line with the new GOG policy.

Studies have just been completed for AfDB for a series of 50 to 200 ha irrigation schemes. The main development for the next 10 years will most probably consist of two 2000-ha phases of five years each to be financed by AfDB. Apart from such new development, most of the activities in the near future should be directed at the rehabilitation of existing schemes with JICA funds.

The Irrigation Company for the Upper Regions (ICOUR) has been established by GOG to promote the production of food crops by small-scale farmers within organized and managed irrigation schemes, with the objectives of improving food security and increasing incomes.

ICOUR is an autonomous company wholly owned by GOG, with IDA as its representative, and directly financed by the Ministry of Finance. Its present organigram (de Nooy, 1996) is shown in Figure 4.

Currently, ICOUR operates projects at Tono (reservoir max. 1860 ha and 2490 ha irrigated) and at Vea (reservoir max 405 ha and 850 ha irrigated) irrigation schemes, in the Upper Eastern Region. Activities at these two projects involve:

• training and developing village-community farmers (ab. 6000) to play an increasing role in the operation of the projects;
• technical advisory services for crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries development;
• providing tractor hire services, irrigation water and farm inputs (including fish fingerlings);
• carrying out trials for testing practices new to the region (for example see Kumah et al., 1996);
• assisting in the organization of credit and marketing for small-scale farmers;
• providing/maintaining the necessary infrastructure.

Sixteen Village Committees have been formed and developed to become responsible for land allocation to small-scale farmers and to become involved in the distribution/control of irrigation water at field level. Each farmer is allocated a 0.2 to 0.6 ha plot . Crops include rice (2 crops/year), vegetables (tomatoes, onions), soyabeans, millet, sorghum, maize, cowpeas and groundnuts. Farmers have to contribute to the costs of services and maintenance by payment of a Project Levy (rains cropping season) and an Irrigation Levy (dry season). Credit is available for farm inputs such as fertilizers, feeds and fingerlings.

ICOUR has gained substantial experience in the fields of water management, agricultural improvement, strengthening of Water Users Associations (Section 3.1.3) and training of field staff/farmers using audio-visual methods.

ICOUR Fisheries Unit assists fishermen and fish farmers:

• A capture fishery has developed at the two large irrigation reservoirs. A Lake Management Committee has been formed for each of them. ICOUR provides fishing inputs (boats, nets, etc.) and training in construction/maintenance of fishing boats. Monitored average yield (1994) was 73kg/ha for a total of 165 t.
• Ponds have been integrated into the irrigation scheme at both projects, totalling 4.8 ha (8 ponds) at Tono and 3.8 ha (16 ponds) at Vea. These ponds can be rented by farmers to grow rice and/or fish but it appears that very little interest is actually shown by the farmers to do this (Kumah et al.,1990).

This FAO Project (TCP/GHA/6613) started in October 1996 and is due to terminate in April 1998 (de Nooy, 1996). Its objectives are:

• to assist in the development of a suitable approach and methodology to establish effective irrigation extension services to assist small-scale farmers in taking responsibility for the management of irrigation schemes;
• to develop a training programme and train key staff in the departments of irrigation, agricultural production and extension to effectively assist farmers in a viable and sustainable irrigated farming system;
• to provide recommendations that will help GOG in formulating sound policies to promote the transfer of irrigation management responsiblities to farmers.

A Steering Committee representing the main agencies involved in irrigation development (IDA, various MOFA departments/services, Ministries of Finance/Planning, FAO Regional Irrigation Officer) has been set up for providing guidance and coordination between these various agencies. It meets once a month.

By now, six irrigation schemes (two per agro-ecological zone, North/Central/Coastal) have been selected as pilot projects, as shown in the table below (see also Figure 1 for location of projects).

The implementation of an FAO Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) has been agreed by GOG. The National Programme is now under preparation and should be finalized in December 1997 (J.P. Eckebil, pers. comm.).

a/ Scale: L - large scale (> 500 ha); M - medium scale (100-500 ha); S - small scale (< 100 ha)

b/ R - run of river/weir; D - from reservoir; G - by gravity; P - with pump; S - sprinkler irrigation

Ref.: de Nooy, 1996 and S. Forson (pers. comm.)

Positive factors favouring Ghana participation into the proposed Research Network are numerous, as described in the preceeding sections. They consist of well-developed administrative infrastructure/human resources and production infrastructure, briefly summarized as follows.

• Policies/strategies: high priority given to
  • irrigation development
  • rice production
  • fish production in inland waters
  • development of small- and micro-scale schemes
  • development of floodplains and valley bottoms
  • integrated pest management

• Development focal points
  • District Assemblies (annual funds for fisheries development)
  • Water Users Associations (dugouts/dams)
  • Farmers Associations/Cooperatives
• Improved agricultural extension services
  • Unified extension system
  • Research Extension Linkage Committees
  • TCP/GHA/6613 in six irrigation schemes

• Special Programme for Food Security has been initiated but it is still to be formulated, giving a chance to fisheries (esp. fish farming) to be included for diversification purpose.

• Department of Fisheries: renewed interest for integration of aquaculture and irrigation (two sites); past experience with stocking of water bodies; fingerlings production

• Research institutions (fisheries, sociology, economic and development sectors) include:
  • Universities (Accra, Kumasi, Tamale)
  • WRI (water resources, national network, databases)
  • ARDEC/WRI (past experience with integration research and with culture-based fisheries)
  • ICOUR Fisheries Unit (substantial experience with Water Users Associations, training, water management)
  • Possibly IDC/IDA (research/training)

• Irrigation schemes
  • great number/diversity of existing schemes
  • geographical location varied (north/central/coastal)
  • all sizes (large, medium, small, micro-scale)
  • topographical location varied (dry/floodplains, valleys)

• Culture-based fisheries
  • numerous dugouts and reservoirs of various sizes, especially in the Northern Region where poorest rural communities are found
  • some experience with fishery enhancement through stocking

• Aquaculture
  • five functional GOG fish farms integrated in irrigation schemes
  • ICOUR fish farming research station

Local and international communication systems function well. A reliable e-mail and Internet server is available. Major computer firms are well represented on the local market.

Existing constraints will have to be removed and in particular the following:

• absence of socio-economic studies on the integration of fisheries and irrigated agriculture;
• weakness of the Department of Fisheries to provide support to interested farmers and to manage existing fish farms for adequate fingerling production (lack of well trained field staff at all level);
• lack of coordination Fisheries/Irrigation.

The research institution particularly well suited to host the new research network for the integration of aquaculture and irrigation would be the Water Research Institute, in Accra (Section 3.1).

6. LITERATURE CONSULTED

de Nooy, E.J.P., 1996. Development of support structure for irrigated agriculture. Report of the first mission during preparatory phase. Rome, FAO, AGLW: TCP/GHA/6613, 48 p.

FAO/AGLW, 1997. Ghana. pp. 141-145 In: Irrigation in Africa in Figures. Water Reports, (7):336 p.

ICOUR, 1995. Information handbook. Accra, Ghana, 10 p.

Kumah, D., D. Bagbara, and J.K. Ofori, 1996. Rice-fish culture experiments in the Tono irrigation scheme. pp. 42-47. In: M. Prein, J.K. Ofori and C. Lightfoot (eds.), Research for the future development of aquaculture in Ghana. ICLARM Conf. Proc., (42):94 p.

MacPherson, N.J. et al., 1990. A synthesis report on technical assistance and investment framework for aquaculture and culture-based fisheries in Ghana. Rome, FAO, FI: TCP/GHA/0051 Field Document, 32 p.

The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, 1993. Medium term research programme 1993-1997. Sustained growth and development. Legon, University of Ghana, 52 p.

Vincke, M.M.J. and L.K.A Awity, 1990. Description and assessment of fish farms in Ghana. Rome, FAO, FI: TCP/GHA/0051, Field Work.Pap., (10): 28 p.

Water Research Institute, 1997. Annual Report 1996. Ghana, Achimota, 45 p.

Figure 1. Ghana: administrative regions and major irrigation schemes

Figure 2. General organization of the Water Research Institute

Figure 3. Organigram of the Irrigation Development Authority

Figure 4. Organigram of the Irrigation Company for the Upper Regions (ICOUR)