Wa Municipal

• Home and farm visits
• AEA training
• Farmer training
• Monitoring of youth in agriculture program (block farm, LDP)
• Animal health extension
• Disease surveillance
• Livestock treatment and vaccination
• Planning and coordination
• Promotion of local food based nutrition, processing and home management
• Promotion of sustainable land and water management

INTRODUCTION

Location:

The Wa Municipality is one of the nine Districts/ Municipal Assemblies that make up the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana. The UW region is located in the north-west part of Ghana and shares borders with the La Cote D’Ivoire to the north,-west, Burkina Faso to the north, Upper East to the East and the Northern Region to the south. The Wa Municipal Assembly shares administrative boundaries with the Nadowli District to the north, Wa East District to the east and south and Wa West District to the south. It lies within latitude 1⁰40^,N to 2 ⁰ 45 ‘ N and longitude 9 ⁰ 32 ^, to 10 ⁰20 ^, W. it has a land mass area of approximately 234.74 square kilometers, which is about 6.4% of the size of the region. The implication of the location of the municipality for development is, enhancing bilateral trade and commerce with Franco phone countries. Wa town has the potential to grow and be upgraded into both an industrial and commercial hub for the north-western corridor of Ghana.

Demography

According to the 2000 population and Housing census, the Wa Municipality has a total population of 98,675. The growth rate of the municipality is 2.7% for rural and 4% for the urban. The population density is 542 persons per square kilometers. There is growing population density and consequently pressure on land and socio-economic infrastructure. This raises the issue of population management, specifically, housing, streetism, conflict management, land use planning to be addressed. The population structure of the Wa municipality revealed a preponderance of the youth over the aged and females over males. The youth form 49%, potential working population 47% and the aged 4%. This means a high dependency ratio since the economically active population is 47% compared to dependent population of 53%. The population is also a female dominated one. That is 51% females against 49% males. The gender implication of the above includes programming for women, mother and children to provide for peculiar health, educational and economic needs and strengthening institutions for effective governance and protection of the vulnerable and excluded and also ensure human rights especially for women. A second implication is that the youthfulness of the population requires the provision of social infrastructure especially schools, crèches, day nursery, primary and junior secondary schools, healthcare services especially family planning, adolescent and reproductive health services. Thirdly, there will be the need for skills development programmes that will provide the youth with employable skills to address current and future unemployment problems. These implications are linked to population management issues such as enhancing effective resource mobilization, human, financial and material resources for the provision of basic socio economic infrastructure and services in the educational and health sectors. There is also the need for capacity building and institutional strengthening for the staff of the municipal assembly and other sector departments. There is the need to embark upon vigorous population management programmes and employment creation for the youth.

Table == age and sex population structure 2009, Wa municipality

Age group	male	Female	Total
0-19	30,997	31665	62662
20-64	28605	31285	59890
65 +	2224	2508	4732
Total	61,826	65458	127284

There is evidence of movement of people from the villages to Wa town. The exact numbers of this phenomenon are not available, however, the factors which promote this population movement include harsh socio economic environment in the rural areas, existence of educational facilities universities, Polytechnics, long distance learning centers, vocational and technical institutional in the Wa town. Other factors are availability of electricity, water, banking, telecommunication and transportation facilities in the Wa town. The others are promise of employment opportunities and availability of agricultural fertile lands. Wa is the most endowed in the above facilities as compared to other settlements and towns in the municipality and the upper west region. The pulling forces bring people of all ages and walks of life to the Wa town,

The upper west is generally poorly endowed and the towns present superficial promises of the advantages and endowments associated with urban communities. Wa town has no heavy industrial and manufacturing industries and employment opportunities are not available. The existing social and economic facilities are also inadequate to attract and retain business operators and administrators as well as technical professional. Opportunities for advancement coupled with actual and perceived biases alienate this category of population to relocate to their preferred destinations such as more endowed southern regions and neighboring countries of Burkina Faso and La Cote d’Ivoire and more socio naturally accommodating towns and settlement in the region. The reasons for movement include educational, economic, search for white collar jobs, farming and cultural, especially to escape from family responsibilities. The implications for development are many; the municipality is denied the physical and mental services of the youth. In summary, there is low capacity to effectively utilize and manage economic and financial resources for sustainable development. There is therefore the issue of attracting and retaining high level caliber of human capital in support of development. Secondly, the issue of social risks associated with HIV/AIDs, drug addiction, prostitution and other norms of deviant behavior comes with this phenomenon

Weather

The climate of the Wa Municipality is characterized by long , windy and hot dry season followed by the short and stormy wet season. The dry season occurs between November and April. The north eastern trade winds from the Sahara desert precipitates the cold harmattan winds between November and February which brings with it coughs, cold and other respiratory diseases and also skin diseases. The hot season records high temperatures with a peak of between 40 ⁰ C and 45 ⁰ C in March and April causing dehydration and incidence of cerebral meningitis. The effect of climate change is becoming more manifest of late due to human activities in terms of bush burning, felling of trees, poor farming practices and infrastructural activities. The wet season lasts between April and October. The annual mean rainfall volume of between 840 mm and 1400 mm is sparsely and poorly distributed over the months. The rainfall pattern is erratic and punctuated by spells of long droughts and heavy downpours and floods. This affects humidity levels, soil moisture levels, crop growth and general agricultural productivity.

Land use

Notwithstanding the fact that the municipality is the commercial hub of the upper west region, agriculture remains main the economic activity. It remains the largest single contributor to the local economy and employs about 70% of the active population. The main staple crops grown are millet, sorghum, maize,, rice, cowpea and groundnuts cultivated on subsistence basis. However, soybeans, groundnuts, Bambara beans are produced as cash crops. Economic trees within the municipality are sheanuts, dawadawa, mango, baobab and teak.

MAJOR CROPS PRODUCED

The major crops produced in the municipality are as follows:

• Maize
• Millet
• Rice
• Sorghum
• Yam
• Cowpea
• Groundnuts
• Soy bean

• Cropped area of major crops

Area under cultivation (area in HA)

Crop	Year
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Maize	13770	17953	16044	17000	18020	19101	20247	6580
Millet	13540	18112	17762	18828	19958	21156	22425	6930
Rice	950	2931	2606	2762	2928	3104	3290	440
Sorghum	64710	49287	11611	12308	13046	13829	14659	7940
Yam	12080	6227	9053	9596	10172	107782	11429	4570
Cowpea	12980	9525	4508	4779	5066	5360	5682	3580
Groundnuts	41470	24941	25646	26973	28591	30306	32124	14730
Soya bean	2532	7139	2,027	7567	8021	8502	9012	4600

Performance(2003 – 2010)

Production figures (MT)

Crop	Year
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Maize	19,280	21,544	25,670	30,600	36,040	40,112	44,543	8554
Millet	12,190	14,489	15,986	18,828	23,950	27,503	31,395	8316
Rice	2,270	6,448	5,212	8,286	93,602	10,243	11,186	616
Sorghum	71,180	54,216	12,772	14,769	18,264	20,743	23,454	9528
Yam	149,740	88,951	133,984	143,940	154,614	164,965	176,007	109177
Cowpea	14,290	10,287	4,057	4,779	5,572	6,432	7,387	4296
Groundnuts	45,620	24,941	38,469	48,551	57,182	63,643	70,673	20622
Soya bean	2,786	2,856	2,899	11,350	13,636	15,304	17,123	6440

Yield figures (MT/HA)

Crop	Year
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Maize	1.40	1.20	1.60	1.80	2.00	2.10	2.20	1.30
Millet	0.90	0.80	0.90	1.00	1.20	1.30	1.40	1.20
Rice	2.39	2.20	2.00	3.00	3.20	3.30	3.40	1.40
Sorghum	1.10	1.10	1.10	1.20	1.40	1.50	1.60	1.20
Yam	12.40	14.30	14.80	15.00	15.20	15.30	15.40	23.89
Cowpea	1.10	1.10	0.90	1.00	1.10	1.20	1.30	1.20
Groundnuts	1.10	1.00	1.50	1.80	2.00	2.10	2.20	1.40
Soya bean	1.10	1.40	1.43	1.50	1.70	1.80	1.90	1.40

Livestock production

The municipality is endowed with ecological and climatic conditions which favor livestock and poultry production. Sheep and goats, fowls guinea fowls, ducks, turkey are reared on subsistence basis to complement crop production in all the communities. Livestock contributes enormously to the food security of the municipality. Livestock is mainly kept on free range with its attendant losses due to diseases such as Newcastle, pneumonia. The production figures livestock show an increase in 2009 over the previous years. There is a steady increase in livestock production from 2006 to 2009.

Livestock	2006	2007	2008	2009
Cattle	6378	6696	7100	13781
Goats	49909	5154	15455	14136
Sheep	3146	3303	9568	12552
Pigs	819	859	3418	1931
Poultry	362998	400204	42214	441224

Fish production

Inland fishing is practiced in the municipality along streams, dams and dugouts. Fish farming is also recently being introduced in the municipality to promote higher fish production

Fertilizer subsidy program

In 2008 and 2009 the fertilizer coupon system was used to implement the fertilizer subsidy program and in 2010 the waybill system was used to implement the fertilizer subsidy program. Information on all special projects

The municipality is implementing about four projects, namely ICRISAT, RSSP, LDP, and Plan Ghana Projects.

ICRISAT stands for International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. Four West African countries, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are involved in a research into short duration sahelian crops maize, cowpea, sorghum, millet, groundnuts, moringa and okro. The headquarters is in Niamey in Niger and the Institute, SARI and MOFA are collaborating.

RSSP stands for Rice Sector Support Project. The project is a follow up to the Low Land Rice Development Project. The project headquarters is Tamale in the Northern Region and the Wa Municipality is one of the District/ Municipal/ metropolitan Assemblies implementing the project.

LDP stands for Livestock Development Project. The per capita consumption of meat and poultry products in the country is the lowest in sub-Sahara Africa. This gap has been widening and has led to the importation of meat into the country. To arrest the situation, the LDP project has been implemented and the Wa Municipality is implementing among others.

Plan Ghana is an NGO in the Upper West Region, which is into capacity building and development of institutions and societies, micro-credit support and empowerment to women groups in collaboration with MOFA and the Wa Municipality is a beneficiary

Special programs

There are 3 programs running in the Municipality; the Northern Rural growth, the fertilizer subsidy and the block farm programs. They are all ongoing.

• Information on new initiatives

• Training of extension women volunteers
• Training of community livestock workers
• Introduction of sahelian crop varieties
• Introduction of soil health and fertility programs

• Information on location of other office branches

The Municipality is divided into 3 zones and 12 operational areas as depicted in the table below

Busa zone	Bamahu zone	Wa Central zone
Busa, Jonga, Kperisi, Yibile	Bamahu, Sing, Boli, Kpongu	Charia, Nakore/Chansa, Wa North, Wa South