By YANGE IKYAA
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday commissioned a total of 5,780 hectares of the rehabilitated and expanded Hadeija Valley Irrigation Scheme (HVIS), Auyo in Jigawa State.
Flagged off for commencement of work in 2018, also by the President himself, the rehabilitation and expansion work on this project was completed last year and subsequently handed over to farmers to own and manage.
This project is said to have brought great excitement and joy to the residents of Hadeija and environs, particularly the Hadeija Farmers Association and Water Users Association (WUA), whose main source of water for their all year-round farming season comes from the irrigation scheme.
The project also has the potential for enormous employment generation for the teaming youths in the state, and is capable of guaranteeing Nigeria’s food security.
The Federal Government, through the federal ministry of water resources, carried out the rehabilitation and expanded the Hadeija Valley Irrigation Scheme, with support from the World Bank under the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) project over a period of three years.
“It is one project that will no doubt ameliorate the sufferings of the entire farmers in Hadeija and subsequently increase their economic potency, while adding value to their lives,” said the water resources ministry in a statement signed by its director of press and public relations, Mrs. Kenechukwu Offie.
According to President Buhari, “we are therefore convinced that the key to our quest for economic diversification and survival lies in increased food production, including dry season farming. A sound and sustainable irrigated agriculture will create more jobs and wealth.
“It will usher in sustainable economic prosperity because we will produce what we consume as a nation and generate foreign exchange by exporting any surplus.
“Among the reasons we will continue to support this option, therefore, is that irrigated agriculture will provide all-year-round socio-economic and food production activities, thereby facilitating sustainable economic prosperity.
“Acknowledging the worthy collaboration of the Federal Government with World Bank through the TRIMING project in Nigeria, it is worthy of note that it has brought great benefits to the country with the completion of several Irrigation Schemes; like the 25, 000 hecters Kano River Irrigation Scheme in Kano State (KRIS), Bakolori Irrigation Scheme (BIS) in Zamphara State, and Hadeija Valley Irrigation Scheme in Jigawa State, which was Commissioned earlier today.”
In his welcome address, the minister of water resources, Suleiman Adamu, reiterated that this project is expected to achieve a significant increase in net incomes on the average household from N259, 000 to N833, 000 per annum before irrigation costs. But when irrigation costs are deducted, the overall farm net income will equal to an average of N781, 000 per annum, which is more than three times the average level of a typical farm in the area before the advent of the scheme.
Adamu said that the commissioning was a clear demonstration of his ministry’s commitment towards the implementation of President Buhari’s agenda to transform Nigeria into a strong and virile economy in food sufficiency
