The federal government of Nigeria has assured of its readiness to explore all irrigation areas for economic development in the country.
The Minister for water resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, stated this when he declared open a four-day stakeholders consultative meeting on Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) Project, Treasury Single Account (TSA) Strategy on Tuesday in Sokoto.
The Minister said the Ministry through TRIMING project provided Technical Assistance (TA) to train farmers and farmer associations including River Basins Development Authorities (RBDAs) personnel for effective Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of irrigation systems.
Adamu who was represented by Mrs Esther Oluniyi, the Director of Irrigation and Drainages in the ministry, said TA as part of the transformation efforts to strengthen the system.
According to him, the TA was designed to promote participatory irrigation management by empowering the farming communities around TRIMING project irrigation schemes to assumed responsibility for ownership of irrigation and drainage system for improved financial gain.
He maintained that farmers on their own can identify works needed for routine maintenance, repairs and minor rehabilitation requirements of the irrigation and drainage system under their care.
He said, “What is expected of RBDAs is moving forward to ensure farmers and their associations have actually taken their new responsibilities with a steady grip, keeping the canals, drains, roads, culverts and other structures in top working conditions.”
Adamu, however, appealed to stakeholders in the transformation course to exert maximum efforts in supporting the processes to ensure success guaranteed.
Earlier in his remarks, the TRIMING Project Coordinator, Mr Peter Manjuk, called on farmers to take ownership of all irrigation projects to enable Nigeria to meet its food sufficiency targets.
Manjuk emphasised the importance for the country to also reduce its absolute dependency on rain-fed agriculture adding that as the country’s population expanded, deliberate efforts should be made to revamp RBDAs across the nation.
The project coordinator said that the RBDAs would serve as the vehicles for the socio-economic development of the nation.
According to him, Nigeria must get it right, if it must meet its food production and food security demands and expressed regret that the huge investments in dams and irrigation projects had yet to achieve any meaningful socio-economic impact on the citizenry.
“Nigeria’s population is fast-growing; in order to ensure food sufficiency and food security, we cannot continue with rain-fed agriculture which has characterised our agricultural practice in the country.
“The contribution of irrigated agriculture has been very little and with our fast-growing population, we cannot sustain ourselves in terms of food sufficiency and food security.
“We must revamp our irrigated agricultural practice and make it work in order to support our population and even to allow us to export produce.”
He called on all farmers benefiting from the TRIMING Programme to take ownership of the projects; “government alone cannot do it,” He said.
He said that Nigeria could not continue to rely on old methods and expect benefits from the activities of the river basins, adding that the river basins were the implementing agencies of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.
The project coordinator said that deliberate interventions were needed to restructure the operations of the river basin development authorities and tackle the problems that had kept them grounded over the years.
He explained that the TRIMING project would not only rehabilitate dilapidated irrigation schemes and expand them where possible; it would also address and improve the institutional arrangements, in line with global best practices.
TRIMING, a project of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, is supported by the World Bank for the improvement of the management of irrigation systems via five schemes executed in five states in northern Nigeria.
The schemes are Bakalori Irrigation Scheme in Zamfara, Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Scheme in Sokoto State, Kano River Irrigation Scheme in Kano State, Hadejia Valley Irrigation Scheme in Jigawa and Dadin Kowa Irrigation Scheme in Gombe State.
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