FUNAAB VC calls for effective water management

THE Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAB) Professor, Kolawole Salako, has made a case for effective water management across Nigeria to avert having major environmental climatic problems.

Salako, a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of Nigeria (FSSSN), made the call while reflecting on the 2020 World Food Day celebration, noting that though irrigation might be necessary in some dry parts of the country to prevent soil build-up, effective water management with adequate rainfall would go a long way in checking environmental issues.

He stressed that indiscriminate pumping of water underground and damming of rivers could lead to uneven distribution of water to states at the lower end of the country.

“In drier areas, when you don’t have enough water, you can have soil build-up. If we want to irrigate from every state, it will get to a point that the states at the lower end of the river will not get anything.

“Meanwhile, if you also mine the water underground excessively, it can be a problem thereby causing some environmental issues,” he said.

According to him, any state that would embark on the development of irrigation facilities must have proper irrigation plans, adding that each state should explore ways through which water could be adequately conserved.

Salako also emphasised the need for the provision of policies and insurance that would make life abundant for farmers, through the availability of basic amenities such as security, transportation, electricity and water, among others.

He stated that agriculture was about life, saying transportation should be made accessible to farmers because real farms were usually not in the urban centres, but in the rural areas with bad roads.

He added that food production should not be made too expensive or tedious for the farmers, as according to him, everybody has a role to play in improving the agricultural value change in the country.

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