Nigeria: Climate Change Threatens Irrigation-FG
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Daily Champion (Lagos)
8 September 2008
Posted to the web 8 September 2008
Lagos
An official of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water resources yesterday said climate change would pose problem to irrigation schemes, if not managed.
The official who pleaded on anonymity told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja that the effect would put pressure on water resources of the country.
He said, "the green belt of this country which is the northern part is likely to become drier with the climate change.
"This is the time we need to invest and develop our structure because we can't depend on rainfall agriculture alone" he said.
According to him, the Ministry had proposed to develop Niger-river valley of about 1.2 million hectares out of 3.4 million hectares available for irrigation in the country.
" We have to lay emphasis on developing these areas if we are to fight the effect of climate change on food security.
"It is a serious challenge, we should begin to talk about it now, we should not wait until it becomes a crisis," he said.
He listed other problems facing the sub-sector as political consideration, the lack of budgetary allocation, sitting of irrigation projects in wrong places and a lack of interest in agriculture by the youth.
"We have problem with that in our first generation projects, where projects would be sited in location where they are not appropriate for political reasons.
"At times insufficient attention is paid to economic importance on irrigation schemes and if it does not make economic sense, it is not likely to be sustainable," the official said.
The official said the lack of budgetary allocation was another problem hindering the progress of irrigation schemes in the country.
"A project that is supposed to cost N5 billion for a period of three years will end up getting N300 million" he said.
He urged the Federal Government to look into these problems saying some projects had been going on in the country for over 10 years while some for 20 years.
"If project is not funded adequately for completion on time, we have inflation, cost escalation and the end result of the project will be expensive.
"Not only irrigation projects, but other projects in the country, government should
fund projects adequately so that people can derive the benefit," he added.
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The official also called on the Federal Government to make farming, especially irrigated agriculture, attractive to the youth.
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