In northern Ghana, where the climatic conditions do not allow for an all-year-around rain-fed
agriculture, irrigation is a necessary complement to enhance livelihoods security and poverty
reduction. The knowledge gap regarding the contribution of existing irrigation facilities to poverty
reduction occasioned the case study of the Tono irrigation scheme located in the Kassena
Nankana District in the Upper East Region of Ghana. A treatment and control experimental
approach was adopted in the investigation. The treatment group comprised a sample of 93 out of
the 1,328 Tono irrigation tomato farmers and the control group sampled 86 out of 614 irrigation
tomato farmers operating outside the Tono irrigation scheme. The Tono irrigated scheme has, to
a considerable extent, created a platform for employment and high agricultural output. However,
the high agricultural output has not been translated into increased income and improved
livelihoods for the farmers and as such limits the impact of the efforts exerted towards poverty
reduction amongst the farmers in the area. The challenges that led to this outcome include high
cost of hiring farm machinery, inadequate access to credit, poor water supply for irrigation, ineffective
technical assistance, lack of entrepreneurial skills, inability to store perishable products
and inadequate ready market to translate the outputs into improved incomes for the farmers.
Actors in the irrigated agriculture industry should pay equal attention to both the production
and marketing aspects of their enterprises. The actors should ensure that the necessary inputs
are available and affordable to farmers.