The coalition of Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) zone Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has reminded the government to reaffirm its commitment to the SADA master plan.
Mr Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, the Executive Secretary, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the civil society had developed a Comprehensive Development Blue-Print called SADA Master Plan to guide, a transformational agenda of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone (NSEZ).
He said the plan was also to quicken Ghana’s steps towards achieving six per cent growth rate of agriculture as required of all African countries under the Maputo Declaration to further the objectives of Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP,) among others.
“We, therefore, entreat the new administration to demonstrate transformational leadership by reaffirming its commitment to the SADA Master Plan”, he added.
He said a research conducted by the organisation showed that, only 15.6 per cent of a total of eight million hectares of arable land was under cultivation in NSEZ and that all existing irrigation facilities in NSEZ currently operated only one-third of their capacity and irrigating less than one per cent of the area under cultivation.
“As a prelude to the implementation of the government’s proposed One Village, One Dam Policy, we urge you to begin improving existing irrigation facilities to operate full capacity and work towards irrigating at least 25 per cent of the eight million hectares in the first year in office.
“We are also calling on the new administration to demonstrate its commitment to its proposed One District, One Factory Policy by revamping all defunct factories in the country particularly agro-based industries such as the Northern Star Tomato Factory, the Bolgatanga Rice Mill and the Meat Factory as early signals and a show of good faith,” he added.
Mr Ayorogo also called on the government to investigate a 500 million dollar loan secured in November 2008 by the Kufuor- led administration for the construction of Pwalugu Multi-purpose Dam in the Upper East region and Juale dam in the Northern Region were still not executed.
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