The Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Alex Mould, has raised serious concerns about neglected agricultural infrastructure assets across Ghana’s Middle Belt following a week-long field assessment tour of key farming zones.
Mr. Mould made the remarks during a seven-day field assessment mission of key farming areas, which covered parts of the Ashanti, Bono, Ahafo, and Bono East Regions, where the MiDA team evaluated water resources, irrigation potential, agricultural value chains, and institutional coordination mechanisms to identify areas for strategic investment.
The MiDA team engaged traditional authorities, regional and district officials, and private agribusiness operators, while also conducting technical inspections of irrigation schemes, dams, inland valleys, markets, and agro-processing facilities.
Speaking during the tour, Mr. Mould expressed concern about the state of several irrigation infrastructure and facilities that have been left to deteriorate over the years due to poor operations and maintenance practices.
“Going around the farming areas in this country has revealed that we have a lot of wasted assets. Investments have been made over the years, but there has been a lot of neglect in terms of operations and maintenance,” he said.
At the Subinja irrigation site, the MiDA team observed that critical infrastructure had been stripped or vandalised.
According to Mr. Mould, “the pump house originally contained four pumps, an electricity transformer, but these installations have since been stolen,” Mr. Mould observed.
He explained that restoring the facility would require a comprehensive feasibility assessment and coordinated intervention from the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
“To rehabilitate the dam, we will need GIDA to conduct a feasibility assessment on how to restore the equipment, dam and fields, rehabilitate the pump house, pumping and piping systems, and restore irrigation canals and reconnect electricity to the facility,” he said.
The MiDA CEO also pointed to significant underutilized and untapped irrigation potential in rice-growing areas, particularly within the Tano North and South Municipal Districts.
“We just left a rice irrigation field that has the capacity to cultivate about 1,000 acres but is currently producing only about 300 acres,” he revealed.
He noted that the construction of a dam in 2008 was never fully completed, limiting the effectiveness of the irrigation scheme.
The neglect of the pump houses
According to him, completing the dam infrastructure and building a concrete canal distribution system could allow farmers to cultivate the full 1,000 acres and harvest at least two crops annually.
“If we can supply water throughout the year, and provide improved agronomy practices, production could increase from about 1,000 tonnes of paddy rice annually to between 6,000 and 7,000 tonnes,” he said.
Mr. Mould described several such sites as “brownfield opportunities” projects, where existing infrastructure can be rehabilitated and farming activity could be rapidly expanded through targeted engineering and water management investments.
He added that scaling up production in these areas could eventually support the establishment of agro-processing facilities such as rice mills, helping to strengthen agribusiness development and reduce Ghana’s reliance on imported rice and other food commodities.
