In the heart of the city of Tamale, the Northern regional capital, is the Gumbihini Vegetable Garden. They cultivate mainly cabbage, lettuce, spring onions and amarantus.
The region generally experiences long periods of dry weather, compelling farmers to adopt irrigation for vegetable production.
According to vegetable farmers at Gumbihini, they use pipe-borne water supplied from the Ghana Water Company Limited for irrigation, however, due to the high cost of water, most farmers are unable to break even.
Alhassan Salman, the Vice Chairman of the Gumbihini Vegetable Farmers Association, spoke to Citi Business News about their challenges.
“We don’t have water, we are compelled to use pipe-borne water and people are complaining that they want the water to drink and we are using for vegetables, meanwhile, others are also complaining of people using water from the gutter to irrigate their vegetables.”
He, however, noted that: “The pipe water is expensive. In a month, three of us pay 3,000 cedis for water. We are not able to break even”.
Off the Choggu-Waterworks road is Wuntongti Vegetable farmers Association. They also cultivate lettuce, cabbage, spring onions and green beans.
Close to the garden is a drain that goes through homes, carrying all sorts of impurities including human excreta. Citi Business News sighted a water pumping machine connected to draw water from the drain to irrigate the vegetables.
Mohammed Abass, the Secretary to the Wuntunti Vegetable Farmers Association at Water Works, claims the water that flows through the drain comes from a dam.
“We don’t have a water problem here, we get water from the new dam over in the forest” he said.
Though the farmers will not admit to using untreated water, the evidence suggests otherwise. A recent research by scientists at the University for Development Studies, UDS, Nyankpala Campus, revealed that salad sold at most food joints in the Metropolis is contaminated with salmonella, a group of bacteria that causes infection in the intestinal tract.
Dr. Courage Saba, one of the scientists said the kind of water used to irrigate the crops is a major contributory factor.
“What we have found out is that, most of the farmers use water from the gutter which already is contaminated with these organisms before they use them to water these salads.”
The farmers are also appealing for the construction of a mechanized borehole and a storage facility to enable them store fresh vegetables to help reduce post-harvest losses.
“When we produce and it’s abundant, we don’t get a place to store it. We want the government and NGOs to help us construct cold room and mechanized boreholes. For now, we plead that GWCL should subsidise the bill for us.”
It is also worthy to note that, vegetable farming provides livelihoods for a number of families, hence the need for government to address the challenges they face by making available uncontaminated water at an affordable cost.