Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP) on Friday, April 24, 2020 donated Personal Protective Equipments (PPE’s) to two communities; Torgorme and Essokope in the North Tongu district in the Volta region as support in fighting against the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The GCAP is a Project of the Government of Ghana being implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The Project became effective on April 8, 2013 with funding from the World Bank credit of US$150 million and co-funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with a grant of US$16.95 million. The USAID grant is administered through the World Bank under a Trust Fund arrangement.
The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to improve agricultural productivity and production of both smallholder and nucleus farms in selected project intervention areas in Ghana. The main Project locations are the Accra Plains and the Northern Development Authority areas.
Advancing the objectives, the President of the Republic, Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the end of his 3-day tour of the Volta Region in July 12, 2018 cut sod for the rehabilitation and expansion of the Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Project, at Torgome, in the North Tongu Constituency of the Volta Region.
With the country possessing 1.9 million hectares of irrigable land, only 210,000 hectares is suitably developed, representing a little over 11% of the total area which can be potentially irrigated.
That is why the Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project, in consultation with the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA), has selected for rehabilitation and modernization of the Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Project (KLBIP), together with four other major public irrigation schemes.
The the Project coordinator of (GCAP), Mr. Osei Owusu Agyemang, who led the team, presented veronica buckets, nose mask, soaps and gallons of hand sanitizers to Torgorme and Essokope, which other 19 smaller communities in the district will also benefit.
Addressing the press after the presentation, Mr. Agyemang said, government has invested about $34 million for the Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Project (KLBIP) at Torgorme in the North Tongu district, an investment Mr. Agyemang claimed would create millions of jobs directly to farmers and the farming communities.
For that reason, “and so there will be of no benefit if all the people in the communities die of COVID-19 before the completion of the project,” Mr Agyemang noted as the motivation behind their donation.
According to him, GCAP will further take steps to sensitized members of the communities on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the District Chief Executive Officer for North Tongu, Hon Richard Collins Arku, receiving the items on behalf of government and the communities, thanked (GCAP) for their step taken in providing PPE’s to his communities in support of the fight against covid-19.
He briefed that, the Assembly has also put in measures in fighting of the virus which it have already provided PPE’s to the communities in the district.
He called on the people to pay attention to coronavirus protocols by observing social distancing, regular hand washing with soap under clean running water, use of nose mask, regular rubbing of the palm with alcohol rub sanitizer and avoiding social gathering.
Togbe Gidi IV, the chief of Torgorme traditional area expressed his profound gratitude to (GCAP) for their tremendous support and says he is happy for the kind donation adding; that this will help them more in fighting the covid-19.
Source: Sylvester Tetteh/ritefm.online.org
