Farmers in the Upper West Region have been advised to utilize the few irrigation dams in the region for all-year farming. Mr Morris Sinkari, Wa Municipal Director of Agriculture, told the GNA in an interview that that there were 19 dams in the region that could be used for dry season agriculture. But many of them, he said, were under utilized and farmers in their catchments areas idled during the dry season. He said although agricultural production had increased over the years, much more could be achieved through irrigation since the rainfall pattern had become erratic and unpredictable. Mr Sinkari said he was happy that the Singbakpong irrigation dam that is under construction would be put to full use by farmers in Sing and surrounding communities after its completion. He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture supplied early maturing seeds of cowpea with insecticides to 42 farmers in the municipality who were affected by the floods in August. The floods resulted in the loss of about 221 acres of crops, 177 farm families and about 900 persons in the Municipality. He said the non-cooperative attitude of many farmers had often led to low adoption of technologies resulting in perennial shortfall in food production. Source: GNA