Reducing the cost of irrigation farming By Vincent A. Yusuf & Safina Buhari | Publish Date: Mar 30 2017 2:00AM

Motorised pivot distributing water to the crops at the Gurara irrigation farm in Kaduna State


Irrigation farming allows a nation to produce food all year round thereby doubling the amount of food produced.


However, despite the enormous available potential, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said 80 percent of farmland worldwide is not irrigated.


High cost of irrigation equipment, ineffective and wasteful irrigation techniques have made efficient irrigation difficult for many farmers across sub-Saharan Africa.


The state of Nigeria irrigation schemes


Nigeria has huge potentials for irrigation with dam projects spread all over the country. However, most of the dams - the ones that government has invested on - are either abandoned for years or are less than 50% utilised.


Professor Ibrahim Umar Abubakar, Director, Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, who is also an irrigation expert, shared his thoughts in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust.


“Go to any irrigation scheme like the Hadeja-Jama’are river project, the utilisation of the project is just about 50% and this is an irrigation project that is driven by gravity -you don’t have to buy any fuel to pump in water,” he said.





The Zobe dam in Dutsin-Ma in Katsina, which was constructed 40 years ago has very little irrigation activities going on there - the dam, water, everything is there unutilised. At the Jibiya dam also in Katsina State, the utilisation is no more than 40%.









Also, at the Bakolori Irrigation dam at Talata Mafara in Zamfara State, under the Sokoto Rima Water Project established during the Shagari regime, the area cultivated is not commensurate with the amount of water in the dam.


The Doma dam in Nasarawa State under the Lower Benue River Basin Authority is similarly underutilized.




Cost of Irrigation





Professor Abubakar stressed that the cost of irrigation is high if dams are driven by pumps. The Jibiya dam for example is not gravity based irrigation, it is pump-based, water has to be pumped by


big diesel-driven pumps such that every day the irrigation managers have to buy diesel to be able to pump water to farmers.


“This pump-based irrigation requires a lot of money to buy diesel and you know diesel in this country is very expensive,” the expert noted.


How government can design cost effective irrigation scheme


The IAR director, who has worked as expert on irrigation for many years, suggested that to reduce the cost of irrigation, the design of irrigation dams should be gravity-based so that water can flow by gravity, adding that “you don’t have to buy pumps and diesel to pump the water.”


The other way to reduce the cost of irrigation is to reduce the cost of diesel itself.


“In other countries where development is the goal of government, where government is thinking of agriculture, diesel is always half the cost of petrol. In Saudi Arabia for example, diesel is half the cost of petrol. In many other countries, the cost of diesel is always lower than the cost of petrol – do you know why - diesel is used in transporting goods and if the cost of goods is low, the economy will be better.


“Diesel is used in all agricultural heavy machinery - tractors, caterpillars - all heavy machinery. So if the cost of diesel is improved, the economy will improve,” he said.


He noted that farmers using irrigation will fare better because the cost of diesel is low and the cost of irrigation will naturally come down.


How farmers can reduce costs in their farms


Professor Abubakar, advised that another way farmers can reduce the cost of irrigation is to adopt ‘Deficit Irrigation,’ which ensures that you irrigate only at the time the crop needs water. “You just timed the critical period of water needs and irrigate only on those times. In this case, you minimize the number of irrigation you give to your crops and still achieve high yield.”


He stressed that the concept of deficit irrigation needs to be propagated to farmers because “our farmers have the tendencies to irrigate all the time. They believed that more water means more yield, which is not correct.


“The concept of more water, more yield is not correct, because if you over irrigate, it will even bring about reduction in the yield. Irrigation scheduling concept should be propagated to the farmers so that a farm should be irrigated only when the crop needs it.”


The researcher worried that most times when farmers see water, they irrigate, pointing out that the high frequency of irrigation also contributes to the high cost of irrigation.

Olam Farms engages locals as rice harvest begins

Rice Combined Harvester at work in the farm at Ondorie, Rukubi, Nasarawa State

Olams Rice Farms, producers of Mama’s Pride and Chef’s Choice Rice, has commenced harvest in its dry season rice farming circle.


A total number of 11 combined harvesters and one splitter harvest machine were deployed for the harvest.


The number of hi-tech machines deployed did not, however, stop the farm from engaging over 600 seasonal workers from the host communities to participate in the exercise, General Manager of the farm, Mr. Pieter Nel, said.


Out of the 12,920 hectares, being the total area of the farm, the dry season rice farm, according to the farm officers, sits on 3,000 hectares with each yielding an unprecedented 4.2 to 4.5 tonnes.


This is far above the national yield per hectare which is currently put at between 1.3 and 1.8 tonnes.


Mr. Pieter Nel told newspaper editors, who were at the farm to witness the harvest, that the high yield per hectare recorded in the farm was due to some best farming practices used in them.


Some of the practices, he said, were the raising of the soil standard to meet the rice varieties, which he stated, was done after series of soil tests in different laboratories.


The practices, he said, also included using appropriate technology, including aircraft for the seedlings, application of fertilizers as well as spraying of insecticides on the farm, when necessary.


The farm manager, Mr. Mark Mclean, who conducted the editors round the farm, said 1400 hectares would be added to the 3,000 already in use for the forthcoming rain-fed season, which would increase the hectarage to 4,400.


The farm manager said four varieties of rice – Faro 44, C90, C20 and L34 were planted and that they all gave the expected high yields, adding that the farm is currently studying over 100 other varieties with a view to adopt some.


Speaking on the irrigation activities in the farm, the Farm Manager, said water is channeled from River Benue using five submersible pumps with each capable of pumping 5,000 cubic metres per second to the farm for its dry season farming.


“Because of this, we have the capacity to farm two times in a year, producing 4.2 tons per hectares and we have 3,000 hectares for the dry season and planning 4,400 hectares for this coming wet season,” he said.


He, however, said the farm could not still produce the needed paddy for its milling plant, also located within the farm.


“We have about 6,000 out growers from where we buy paddy but they are still not enough and we have to augment from the open markets,’’ he said.


At the milling plant, the Director Quality Assurance, Madan Sigh, said the company attached much importance to the quality and safety of its rice and therefore do not use chemical indiscriminately during production.


“We conduct relevant analysis to ensure that our rice is safe and meet the nutritional values,’’ he added.


The General Manager had earlier told the journalists that their milling plant has 105,000 milling capacity.


On their social responsibilities to the host communities, the Farm’s Community Relations Manager, Abubakar Ogashuwa, said the farm created access roads to link up the six host communities around the farm, provide the communities with solar power, built boreholes in each of the communities, construct block of six classrooms for their school as well as introduced scholarship for their children in the school


He said the farm was also in constant meeting with herders to avoid crises that could come up through invasion of the farm by their animals.


Some of the locals, who spoke with Daily Trust, said the farm had been relating well with its host communities.


“Apart from providing us with some facilities, they also allow us to fish inside their farm. However, we will continue to demand for more but for now, they are doing well with us,” one of the residents told Daily Trust.


Olam’s Vice President, Corporate and Government

Edo clears 1000 hectares land for maize farming

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State


Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has inaugurated 1,000 hectares of cleared field for maize production in Sobe Farm Settlement of Owan West Local Government of the state.


Speaking during the inauguration, Obaseki said the maize cultivation, which could directly empower 200 agripreneurs, was part of his administration’s accelerated agriculture initiative to create jobs in the state.


He explained that the first phase of the initiative would target job creation for 1,000 farmers through the cultivation of 5,000 hectares of maize farms across the councils in the state.


“Today is the first step towards actualising the 200,000 jobs promised by my administration. If we invest in agriculture, we can do more than 200,000 jobs in Edo and Nigeria as a whole,” he said.


He observed that land preparation was a major challenge in the state, adding that the initiative was to make land preparation easy for farmers.


He added that the initiative was in partnership with Saro AgroSciences ltd, which would provide technical support for the programme.


On his part, the Group Managing Director of Saro AgroSciences, Mr Oluwole Adeyegbe, said the scheme targeted a minimum of four metric tonnes of maize yield per hectare, which would be bought directly from the farmers.


He said the company was also collaborating with the state government for the second phase of the initiative, which would feature the use of green house and Cocoa Yield Enhancement Programme.

RMRDC revives Kenaf production, gives seeds to farmers

From left: Dr. J. A. Adetumbi of IAR&T, Ibadan; Malam Musa Labaran, Vice President, Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN), Hassan Abubakar, National President, Kenaf Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (KEPPMAN); Dr. Dan’Azumi Ibrahim, Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Christine Sunkur, National Women Leader, KEPPMAN and Dr. A. A. Ogunwusi, Director, Agro and Agro Allied Department, RMRDC.

The Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC)-an agency of the Federal Government, which promotes the production of crops of strategic importance to the economy, is now reviving kenaf production.

Last week, the agency gathered kenaf farmers, processors and marketers and gave them improved seeds for the 2017 planting season, in a ceremony held in Abuja.

The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the council, Dr Hussain Doko Ibrahim, said kenaf was capable of revolutionizing the Nigerian agricultural and industrial landscape if its potentials were well harnessed.

“One of the major industrial uses of kenaf, which Nigeria is presently most concerned, is the production of jute sacks for packaging agro raw materials for exports. In view of the collapse of the national initiative on the jute sacks production locally, the current jute sacks requirement in the country is estimated at about 5 million pieces,” he said.

Represented by Dr A A. Ogunwusi, the Director, Agriculture & Agro Allied Department of the council, he said the import costs about N2.75 billion in foreign exchange on annual basis, adding that the situation has forced commodity exporters to import second hand jute sacks from Ghana.

This, he said, necessitated the council’s intervention in growing kenaf, which is a raw material for the jute bags industries in the country.

“To promote sustainability of improved planting materials, the council in collaboration with the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training IAR&T, Ibadan, this year produced improved kenaf seeds, which are being distributed today to the members of Kenaf Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (KEPPMAN) for further multiplication,” he stated.

Currently, Nigeria has over one million hectares of land for the cultivation of kenaf in about 18 states of the federation-Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, Plateau, Kwara, Kaduna, Benue, Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti and the FCT.

Other areas of intervention by the council include establishment of a pilot kenaf farms and processing centres in Oyo and Niger states in 2012 and 2014 respectively; multi-locational-field trials of improved kenaf seeds through IAR&T Ibadan; design and fabrication of kenaf decorticating machines at Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, among other areas.

Reacting to the development, National President of Kenaf Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (KEPPMAN), Hassan Abubakar, in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, said the gesture was a welcome development, adding that the association now had improved seed for multiplication and distribution to other farmers.

Apostle Kunle Amosu, the National Secretary of the association, however, worried that kenaf could be cultivated in commercial quantity without mechanizing the process.

He puts the jute bags needs of Nigeria at 28 million, adding that “to produce just 2 million bags, you need 3,000 tonnes of kenaf fibre.”

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) is an annual fibre cordage crop ( for making rope, thread, and sack cloth) now has new applications including paper products, building materials, absorbents, and livestock feed.