A deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Anthony Abayifa Karbo says rather than to criticize Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his one-village-one-dam policy, people should applaud him for coming out with practicable solution to the problems of the people of the three northern regions.
In his view, the triple-effect policy when implemented if he wins the mandate of the people to govern the country will bring an end to the continuous migration from the north to the south, create jobs for the people, improve livestock rearing and above all enable the country to become sufficient in food production.
Karbo who is also the parliamentary candidate for Lawra interacting with Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM Monday said the absence of dams for irrigation farming is having a negative impact on the people in the three northern regions.
For instance, he said the regions out of the 12 months period only farm for four months and then migrate to especially, the Brong Ahafo region where there is rainfall throughout the year to search for jobs.
This practice, coupled with others, he noted, is not the best for the regions going forward, believing that it only when dams are constructed for irrigation farming purposes that the living standards of the people would be improved.
“As we speak, over 40% of the population in Brong Ahafo is coming from the three northern regions. You would ask yourself why they are moving. They are moving because out of the 12 months, only four months are used for farming purposes. In October the rain season will cease and all of them will move to the Brong Ahafo region because over there farming is all year round affair. So, the only way to reverse the rural-urban migration is to create the environment which is the construction of these dams. With the dams, apart from encouraging dry season agriculture where our brothers and sisters will be planting carrots, cabbage among other things to support their livelihoods, it will also help improve livestock rearing”.
“If you have water, the cows, the goats, the pigs can use water and livestock rearing will really help grow the agriculture sector. They farm animals travel very far away in the Saharan to look for food and water. It will also help create jobs in the country. So, with this, nobody should underestimate the power of this one-village-one-dam policy. It has triple effect”, he noted.
