The agricultural revolution of the Federal government geared towards accelerating food production and security got a boost with the completion of the Hadejia Valley Irrigation Project (HVIS), in the Auyo local government area of Jigawa state.
The N17 billion intervention project of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources under the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) project with World Bank Assisted, was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday.
The 6,000 hectares irrigation infrastructure is composed of a Lined canal with concrete lined Feeder Canal (FDC) that runs for 2.8km and ends at the main division works, Clay lined North Main Canal (NMC) with 19 sectors. The infrastructure also stretches by South Main Canal (SMC) with 25 sectors and Main Drain and Drainage Buffer.
Minister of Water, Engr. Suleiman Adamu told journalists that the successful completion of Hadejia Valley Irrigation works by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would give rise to massive investment in agricultural production along the corridor.
Adamu explained that president Buhari’s commitment to repositioning irrigation infrastructure to accelerate food production has left a footprint on the rehabilitation and expansion HVIS, abandoned in a state of disrepair in the last 40 years.
On the economic viability of the multi-billion naira infrastructure, the Minister emphasized that a household farmer is projected to earn an average of N770,000 profit margin with N90 million potential revenue generation per farming session.
According to him, ” HVIS is one of the five interventions of the Ministry of Water Resources under the Trimming World Bank assisted program, started in 2016 but this is the first to be completed, consisting of 3,000 hectares rehabilitation and 3,000 expansion works.
“Thousand of farmers especially the rice farmers will benefit alot from the irrigation that now guaranteed all year-round production. We are not only giving them irrigation, government through TRIMMING project has equipped farmers with farming techniques and new application of using fertilizer and improve seeds.
“As you can see, we have about 25,000 potential hectares of land for irrigation but because of the cause of water management we need to restrict the flow in order to avoid overflow into user communities at the downstream like Yobe state and so on and that is why we limited the facility to 6,000 hectares.”
National Project Coordinator, TRIMMING Project, Engr. Peter Yakubu Manjuk said the government initiated a system that guaranteed maintenance of the infrastructure mindful of the sustainability deficit of public facilities.
Against the old culture, Engr. Manjuk explained that ownership and operation system has been entrenched within the users in a bid to ensure a maintenance culture.
“The project would be sustainable and guaranteed because we have brought all the enablement that make irrigation practice successful globally. Farmers are going to be on the driving seat and own the infrastructure, at the tertiary level they will operate and maintain and would no longer wait for the FG to carry out maintenance and operate the system.
“Farmers will engage their own workers and operate the system themselves. Farmers have been trained, mobilized and nurtured how to sustain the operations with little or no input of government . We have the assurance to say the era where government project, having spent alot to build, would be left dilapidated is over.”
