THE EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL MODERNISATION ON POVERTY REDUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF THE TONO IRRIGATION SCHEME IN THE KASSENA-NANKANA DISTRICT OF THE UPPER - EAST REGION OF GHANA

Over the past three decades, there has been increasing recognition of irrigation development as a source of sustainable poverty reduction. This argument is rooted in the fact that poverty is endemic among food crop producers in the rural areas. The central argument has been that, if the poor have access to water throughout the year, they would be able to produce two or three times in a year, especially in the savannah regions. Thus, accelerating the provision of irrigation infrastructure is one of the intervention areas for modernization of agriculture as captured in Ghana's Agricultural development policy framework. This study sought to ascertain the effects of irrigated agriculture on poverty reduction among the people in the Kassena-Nankana District, from the perspective of the Tono Irrigation Scheme. The district is located in the Upper-East Region of Ghana where nine out of ten people are considered poor, which puts poverty at 90 percent. The mainstay of the local economy is mostly rain-fed agriculture with a few dug-outs and dams used mostly in the dry season. Majority are in the food crop sector The Tono Scheme was established in 1985 by the Government of Ghana as an integral rural development strategy, to enable farmers crop twice in a year, through the adoption of modern farming techniques. The overall objective was to reduce poverty through rural employment creation and to ensure food security. The objectives of the study were to; to ascertain the productive activities that leads to poverty reduction; to determine the level of participation of the beneficiaries in the organisation and Management of the Scheme; to find out the unintended negative consequences of the irrigation scheme; and lastly to identify other pathways out of poverty, irrigation can provide other than The information gathering techniques used included collection of primary and secondary data; which were collected from various sources and subjected to rigorous analysed. Among the major findings of the study are that; Irrigation farming has a positive effect on the socio-economic conditions of the beneficiaries by way of improvement in their income levels, food security, education of their children and reduction of out-migration of their household members to the Southern part of the country. On the whole, the scheme has improved the standard of living of the people. A critical challenge facing irrigated agriculture in particular and agriculture in general is the lack of adequate markets, pollution of the environment as a result of the rampant use of agro chemicals, and the prevalence of water-borne diseases all year round due to the presence of water. An important recommendation from the study is that the Value-Chain Approach should be adopted to improve marketing of agricultural produce, especially produce from irrigation schemes where the cost of production is relatively higher. In addition, aqua-culture and the Tourism potential of the irrigation scheme should be enhanced to create more jobs for the youth.