To produce sufficient food for the country’s teeming population, there must be sustainable and modern agricultural practices. To achieve this, basic agricultural inputs are required. One of these is having an effective irrigation system, a development now stimulating investment interest, DANIEL ESSIET reports.
Sola Adeniyi and his farmer friends regularly seek for ways of improving their farm yields. The regular interaction has enhanced their knowledge base, exposing them to better techniques and ideas to prepare their farmland. One of this is a good irrigation system which helps to effectively manage water on the farm.
Speaking withThe Nation, Adeniyi who is the Chief Executive, High Hill Plantain Farms, Lala Town, Ogun State, said water needs to be managed sustainably through measures capable of helping farmers to increase productivity.
In some areas, right now, farmers are panicking because the rains have been low as well as water level. This has raised fears of drought and severe water shortages.
He said Israelies offer valuable lessons for irrigation because a large share of small farms have adopted irrigated system and this has raised the incomes of poor farmers and farm workers.
With water supply, at record lows across farms, he said no innovation would be more important for farms than micro irrigation systems. Most of farmers water their crops by flooding their fields with sprinklers or hoses, often wasting water as they go.
With micro drip irrigation, water seeps directly into the ground through tiny pinpricks in hoses, avoiding water loss through evaporation.
In addition to the development of new water reservoirs, he said serious conservation steps needed to be taken to improve the efficiency of water use in agriculture which claims almost all of the available fresh water resources.
According to Adeniyi, modern agricultural techniques, including irrigation schemes, have increased productivity in farm lands and brought prosperity to farmers.
He said potential savings would be even higher if the technology switch were combined with more precise irrigation scheduling and a partial shift from lower-value, water-intensive crops to higher-value, more water-efficient crops.
While large farms have higher shares of land under irrigation, he said ensuring access for small farmers, especially in the poorest, most-neglected areas, is thus a prerequisite for success.
Adeniyi said the adoption of modern water conservation methods and agricultural practices is imperative to cope with water scarcity.
With the government facing budget constraints, the onus will fall on international donors, to step in and finance the modernisation of irrigation infrastructure.
In response to these challenges, he is introducing farmers to climate smart technologies.
He urged the government to modernise the irrigation system to boost food output.
In his view, a farmer, Akinoluwa Abayomi Mogaji said irrigation system is working well in the North. This is driven by state governments providing substantial funding for irrigation equipment, pumps, and energy to achieve self-sufficiency in staple foods production.
He said though water resources have been sufficient to produce the food in the North because of irrigation, there are many areas in the Southwest facing substantial water scarcity following lack of rain. Though rainfed farming is where the greatest potential exists for improving output and productivity, he said farmers in the Southwest are facing rain shortage that is affecting increases in yield and have significant impacts on production.
These shortages, he noted, result in increasing competition, which will constrain agricultural production and affect the incomes and livelihood opportunities of many farmers in rural areas.
Painting a picture of the situation, Mogaji said 80 per cent of farmers have lost their crops this year because of water shortage.
He said the sector is on the verge of water scarcity adding that the government should take extra measures to fight the challenge.
Mogaji said farmers in the Southwest were facing challenges with irrigation which requires more capital-intensive equipment because of the topography.The situation, he noted, is more dire in water scarce areas.
For this reason, he said a lot of farmers adopt fewer water-consuming crops and develop saline-tolerant rice varieties in response to the looming emergency.
According to him, supplemental irrigation, with better soil, nutrient, and crop management will enhance productivity and yields in small-scale agriculture.
With micro system , farmers can take few hours to irrigate their fields of vegetables.
He said a small farmer who owns two acres farm needs to be connected to a micro irrigation canal system.
To him, increased water capacity means additional hectares of land being cultivated while farmers can rely on having enough water for full growing seasons.
Crucially, he said the government should incorporate sustainable arrangements to ensure long-term management and upkeep of each dam to ensure that safety standards are maintained.
The Director of Studies, Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute(ARMTI), Dr Olufemi Oladunmi, said irrigation is the mainstay of irrigated agriculture and many small farmers depend on it for their livelihoods. These livelihoods, he noted, however, face serious threats from rapidly falling water tables in many parts of the country.
Without serious efforts to stem the mining of water, he said, food production will decline, unleashing painful social and economic consequences for the nation.
He said there is a severe water shortage looming in the country. This is because water is over-exploited and polluted in many areas; most of the water infrastructure is in in a stste of disrepair; the entire system of irrigation management is not financially sustainable.
Oladunmi said rehabilitation and construction of irrigation canals is a top priority if the government is determined to improve agricultural productivity by enhancing efficiency of water use.
According to him, a systematic approach to agricultural water productivity requires actions at all levels, from crops to irrigation schemes.
He said farms in the North rely heavily on dam network to provide irrigation water for farms in its dry zone.
The issue, however , is that many of the dams are old and their maintenance has been badly neglected.
For him, new dams need to be built and older ones strengthened, with new sluices and radial gates installed, so it can safely be filled to capacity without worry about triggering a breach that would cause flood.
While there are more efforts to improve irrigation nationally, there is, however, hope on the Niger River Basin Management Project.
The $7.5 million project targets strengthening the institutional framework and financial sustainability of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) as well as enhancing regional cooperation around improving environmental and social aspects of the planned Fomi Dam.
Regional cooperation around planned infrastructure in the Niger Basin is critical for distributing impacts and benefits in a way that improves livelihoods in line with varying needs across the basin and for promoting sustainable economic growth.
Following endorsement of the project’s justification note by its development partners, CIWA is set to begin an exciting new partnership with the NBA on the Niger River Basin Management Project.
The project aims to enhance the NBA’s capacity for facilitating improved water resources management and development in the Niger Basin.
The project will achieve this by facilitating various mechanisms that promote the NBA’s financial sustainability as well as support the operationalisation of the basin’s Water Charter.
Also, responding to the basin’s acute needs for infrastructure development, access to energy, storage of water, and other measures that contribute to climate resilience, the project will facilitate regional cooperation for enhanced benefit sharing and reduced social and environmental impacts around the planned Fomi Dam.
The bank project team is collaborating with the NBA to develop key details of the project.
Cooperative development of Fomi is, particularly, important given that the design and operating rules of the dam have the potential to influence the magnitude and share of both benefits and impacts for different riparians downstream of the dam.
The Niger Basin covers nine countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria – seven of which are among the 20 poorest countries in the world. The population in the basin is highly vulnerable, with seventy percent of the basin’s 130 million inhabitants living in rural areas amid food insecurity due to extreme climate and rainfall variability. Along its 4,200km course, the Niger River is the basin’s economic mainstay.
For thousands of years, the river has supported its riparian population with diverse livelihoods such as farming, cattle grazing, and fishing; it forms a particularly important lifeline in the arid and semi-arid lands of the Sahel. But while the basin faces acute challenges, such as rural poverty and food insecurity, both exacerbated by climate change, it has tremendous potential for development of infrastructure including hydropower plants, irrigation schemes, and navigation facilities, all of which can significantly contribute towards economic growth and improvement of livelihoods especially if accompanied by sound integrated water resources management.
The NBA has a critical mandate to facilitate the coordinated and cooperative management of the Niger Basin. In line with the shared vision of member states, the NBA has developed a Sustainable Action Plan (SDAP) – an $8 billion, 20-year investment plan – consisting of a mix of large and small scale investments in the basin.
