By Hussein Yahaya, Vincent A. Yusuf (Abuja), Magaji Isa Hunkuyi (Jalingo), Hassan Ibrahim (Bauchi), Abubakar Akote (Minna) & Ibrahim Musa Giginyu (Kano)
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The rot in dam and irrigation infrastructure across the country is posing a threat to dry season farming, Daily Trust findings have shown.
Our investigations revealed that many of the dams and irrigation facilities are in deplorable conditions due to years of neglect.
This is despite the country’s irrigation potentials for three million hectares and huge assets.
According to the Compendium and Digital Map of Dams in Nigeria, the nation has a total of 408 dams, the highest in Africa.
They are 142 big dams, 59 middle-sized dams and 207 small ones.
There are also 323 irrigation schemes spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country as indicated by the Compendium of Irrigation Schemes in Nigeria.
Some of the top irrigation schemes in the country are: the Kano River Irrigation Scheme (KRIS), Kadawa, Kano State; Bakolori Irrigation Scheme (BIS), Birnin
Tudu, Zamfara State; Hadejia Valley Irrigation Scheme (HVIS), Auyo, Jigawa State; Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Scheme (MRVIS), Goronyo, Sokoto State; Gurara Irrigation, Jere, Kagarko, Kaduna State, among others.
In addition to the irrigation schemes, there are over 23 River Basin Development Authorities, which also provide irrigation potentials for farmers to engage in dry season farming.
It would be recalled that one of the dams in the country, the Alau Dam in Borno State, suffered a burst recently causing severe flood in Maiduguri, the state capital and its environs. Following the incident, the federal government set up a committee to evaluate and review the integrity of all the dams across the country.
Failed irrigation schemes
One of the irrigation schemes built by former President Goodluck Jonathan is the multibillion-naira Gurara Irrigation Scheme in Jere, Kaduna State, covering 6,000 hectares.
SCC Nigeria Limited handled the project’s water distribution system, which included a secondary distribution channel, an on-farm distribution system that covers 4,000 hectares.
The Gurara Irrigation Scheme, which has potential for 12,000 farmers, has five systems: pivot irrigation, pressure irrigation and irrigation with fixed sprinklers, irrigation with drippers and irrigation with mobile sprinklers. However, the project failed to meet the expectations of farmers as the facilities were vandalised or stolen, forcing many of the farmers and seed companies to abandon the site. Today, the project has become a shadow of its design.
Farmers resort to boreholes, wells
In Taraba State, farmers have called on government at all levels to construct canals and water channels to make irrigation farming easy for them.
The Chairman of the Rice Farmers Association in Taraba State, Tanko Bobbo Andami, told Daily Trust that thousands of irrigation farmers lacked access to infrastructure.
He said the River Benue valley that runs hundreds of kilometres across six local government areas of the state was utilised for wet and dry seasons’ farming by thousands of farmers from within and outside the state.
He said the only infrastructure built by the federal government was in Gassol, which was left without maintenance.
He said farmers rely on boreholes, tube wells and pumping machines to irrigate their farms at high fuel costs.
“Please visit any of the irrigation sites, either in Karim-Lamido, Gassol or any part of the state and ask the farmers if they’re getting incentives; they’ll tell you no,” he said.
Andami, a large-scale farmer, said with the current cost of fuel, fertiliser and labour as well as other inputs, irrigation farming would be expensive.
In Bauchi State, many irrigation farmers, especially in the southern part of the state, have migrated to neighbouring states due to shortage of water, diseases and adulterated inputs.
Findings indicate that dry season farmers rely on rivers, boreholes, wells and surface water for watering their crops due to lack of dams in the state.
Last season, Daily Trust gathered that many farmers lost billions of naira following early drying of the rivers and wells, a situation that forced them to move to neighbouring states to continue their activities.
A farmer in Bauchi, Suleiman Maidala, said: “Last season, irrigation farmers witnessed great loss of their capital worth billions of naira, especially in Bauchi Local Government Area and some parts of southern senatorial district, because, after farmers had concluded planting and crops, vegetables had grown to almost the state of maturity, the rivers dried up, all the hand dug wells dried too.
“Farmers watched their crops drying and nothing was realised. Only God knows the amount of money lost as a result of the calamity following the unfortunate shortage of water for the plants”, he stressed.
Similarly, irrigation farmers in Niger State said they rely on boreholes they sunk to draw water to their farms.
One of them in Wushishi Local Government Area, Bala Mahmud Egge, said: “There’s a dam managed by the River Basin Development Authority but it is not yet time to release their water. We don’t depend on them. Our irrigation farming is all-year-round. So, we’ve sunk boreholes through which we pump water to our farms. We pump water once in a week because of the current cost of petrol.”
Tauheed Dwale, a farmer from Edozhigi, Gbako Local Government Area of the state, said they make use of natural ponds and boreholes for irrigation farming.
“There’s a big pond that doesn’t go dry, so some people draw water from there. Those who are far from the pond have sunk boreholes through which they pump water to their farms.
“There was a dam the Federal Ministry of Water Resources wanted to construct, but it was abandoned. But that notwithstanding, we don’t lack sources of water for irrigation farming”, he said.
In Kano State, dry season farming activities have kicked off
The Public Relations Officer of the River Basin Development Authority in the state, Malam Salisu Baba Hamza, said the dams under their watch were in good condition and there was enough water to supply dry season farmers across the areas covered by the river basin.
He said they had plans to rectify all identified blockages in the water channels for easy water supply; which is why they intend to stop water supply from the dam for two weeks.
He said the authority was well prepared to face this year’s irrigation scheme.
He assured that water would be fully supplied to all the sectors of the irrigation scheme, including the newly expanded sectors under the concluded federal government Transformation Irrigation Management in Nigeria project, which is being executed with support from the World Bank.
FG embarks on dams’ evaluation
The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Terlumun, reiterated the government’s determination to rehabilitate dams across Nigeria to avert flood and boost irrigation activities.
He spoke recently when he led a team of the Inter-ministerial Technical Committee on Evaluation of Dams in Nigeria to Shagari dam in Sokoto.
The minister, represented by Oluwatosin Abiola, Deputy Director of Dams and Reservoir Operations, admitted that many dams were aging and required maintenance and upgrade.
He said a technical sub-committee chaired by the Director of Dams and Reservoir Operations had been constituted to handle the exercise.
Terlumun said the committee was inaugurated to assess the physical condition of dams nationwide and examine their impact on local communities.
He stressed the need for increased investment in dam construction and maintenance to ensure maximum utilisation of their capacity for food production in the country.
Integrity tests
Daily Trust reports that during his 64th Independence speech, President Bola Tinubu has ordered that integrity tests be carried out on all dams in the country to “avert future disasters.”
The president’s order came after the Alau Dam in Borno State ruptured on September 10, resulting in the worst flooding the state has experienced in 30 years.
He said: “Our government has been responding to the recent natural disasters, particularly the flooding in parts of the country. Our government has also ordered integrity tests of all our dams in the country to avert future disasters.
“The economy is undergoing the necessary reforms and retooling to serve us better and more sustainably. If we do not correct the fiscal misalignments that led to the current economic downturn, our country will face an uncertain future and the peril of unimaginable consequences,” he said.
Experts believe that all-year-round farming through effective utilisation of dams could avert food shortages in the country.
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