By Oyenero Mercy, Kaduna

Agricultural experts have faulted the poor performance of government-backed irrigation schemes in Nigeria, calling for greater investment in affordable irrigation technologies that would enable smallholder farmers to produce food throughout the year.

They said many large irrigation projects, despite substantial government investment, were either non-functional or operating below capacity, leaving farmers heavily dependent on increasingly unpredictable rainfall.

The experts spoke on Tuesday in Kaduna at a media training organised by the Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF), in collaboration with OmniAgrik Specialities Limited and KickStart International, to strengthen media reporting on irrigation farming and its potential to improve food security and rural livelihoods.

The Executive Director of OmniAgrik Specialities Limited, Dr Yila Umaru, said the country needed to pay greater attention to smallholder irrigation systems, noting that traditional methods of watering crops were labour-intensive and limited the size of farms that farmers could cultivate.

“Smallholder farmers produce an estimated 90 to 95 per cent of the food Nigerians eat, yet less than five per cent of cultivated land in sub-Saharan Africa is irrigated. That is why smallholder irrigation systems deserve greater attention,” he said.

Umaru observed that governments had invested heavily in large irrigation schemes powered by electricity or diesel and supported by canal infrastructure, but many were no longer functioning effectively.

He argued that accessible and affordable irrigation technologies could help farmers overcome the limitations of conventional farming and increase food production across seasons.

“No country has achieved food self-sufficiency on rain-fed agriculture alone. Irrigation is a game changer for rural communities, which also enhances nutrition and diet in families,” he said.

Dr Ademola Festus, West Africa Regional Manager of KickStart International, said the heavy dependence on rainfall had exposed millions of smallholder farmers to the effects of changing weather patterns, including flooding and drought.

According to him, about 96 per cent of smallholder farmers in Africa depend on rainfall, making irrigation essential for extending growing seasons and stabilising agricultural incomes.

He said farmers who combined irrigation with improved seeds and fertiliser could achieve significantly higher incomes than those relying on rain-fed agriculture alone.

Festus explained that improved seeds and fertiliser could raise farmers’ incomes by about two-and-a-half times, while irrigation could increase income fourfold by allowing cultivation during both rainy and dry seasons.

“Together, these can increase income up to ten times,” he said.

He added that irrigation could reduce pest and disease pressure during dry-season farming while giving farmers greater control over the water supplied to their crops.

Festus also identified the potential of water infrastructure and grazing reserves to ease farmer-herder conflicts by reducing the need for livestock owners to move in search of water and pasture.

The Executive Director of AMDF, Mr Sekyen Dadik, challenged journalists to use evidence-based reporting to expose gaps in irrigation policies and assess whether government interventions were delivering the expected results.

Dadik said media reports should not only promote the adoption of irrigation farming but also encourage farmers already using the practice, inform the public about available opportunities and press government to implement existing policies.

She described irrigation as a tool for poverty reduction and said journalists had an important role in ensuring that information about practical farming solutions reached smallholder farmers.

“We hope the information shared will reach the smallholder farmers and the general public who need it most,” Dadik said.

The training concluded with a call for sustained media coverage of irrigation farming, including investigations into the condition of existing schemes, farmers’ access to affordable technologies and the implementation of policies designed to support year-round agricultural production.

The experts said stronger reporting and institutional accountability would be necessary to translate irrigation investments into improved productivity, higher rural incomes and greater food security.