By Aliyu DANLADI
Niger needs help from the World Bank-sponsored Fadama programme to reactivate 17 irrigation schemes and improve mechanisation to encourage youths and women involvement in agriculture, an official said.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Ibrahim Musa,, made the statement in Abuja on Thursday.
Musa said Fadama had encouraged irrigation farming by revitalising some irrigation projects.
He said agricultural production all-year-round could not be achieved by relying only on rainfall.
“ In Niger, we have about 17 irrigation projects and almost all of them are in dilapidated states but Fadama has reactivated some of the irrigation schemes and our duty is to continue from where they stopped.
“ World Bank should help us to reactivate our 17 irrigation schemes in the state which has the capacity to employ over 60,000 people.
“Our 17 irrigation schemes have the capacity for about 60,000 hectares, it is large enough. If each person is to cultivate on a hectare of land we will be mopping up about 60,000 into the agricultural value chain.
“If these are put together you will see tremendous effect on other commodities because it is not only farmers that are producing, others are into processing and marketing and it will make a lot of people actually engage in agriculture which is our hope.’’
According to him, World Bank has to assist in mechanisation in the next phase of Fadama to make agricultural activities easy for farmers.
“Fadama has started the mechanisation but we want them to expand it by providing more machines, tractors, tillers, ploughs, planters, harvesters, among others, so that the whole process will be complete.
“The state government has also been trying by giving inputs to farmers. This year, we provided about 15,000 tonnes of fertiliser and sold at the lowers prices and every farmer had access to it.
“We also procured about 130,000 tractors to enhance our mechanisation; the tractors were taken to villages to enable farmers at the grassroots to access them to increase their production,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Kabir Musa, the Commissioner for Project, Planning and Special Duties, commended Fadama for adding value to agricultural activities in Niger State.
Musa said that “without Fadama, Niger will be something else, especially on farming activities and infrastructure development.
“The life of people has changed under Fadama. People that are used to the local way of farming are now upgraded to the extent that 60 per cent of people who go to pilgrimage now fund their trips from their produce.
“Transportation of farm products from farm to market has been made easy by Fadama under its infrastructure development projects.
“We were in China sometime ago to see some equipment that can be used for agriculture and we procured some of them to make farming attractive to youths.
“I am assuring you with the way we are going now, change will come and we will transform the sector to an income generator for the state and the whole country,’’ he said.
Niger is one of the six Fadama core states and it is involved in rice and sorghum value chain.
