Ibrahim Muhammad
3 July 2009
Yola — Successive governments in Nigeria have made several efforts to boosting agriculture and food production through the establishment of agencies like the upper Benue River Basin Dev elopement Authority, Chad Basin Authority, Hadejia. Jamare River Basin Development Authority to serve as facilitators.
The agencies took off successfully by providing farm inputs and implements to farmers along the river basins in the North, bearing in mind that the Northern part is agrarian and farmers need encouragement to boost agricultural activities.
In 1983, Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority was established to provide land clearing machinery service to enable farmers along the river basin expand their cultivated areas toward increasing agricultural production at subsidized rate to irrigation farmers.
Initially, the agency was responsible for making available tractors, harvesters, bulldozers and farm equipments to enable farmers achieve timelines of farm operation as well as to reduce the drudgeries of farm labour.
Other functions of the authority was to encourage the ownership of small or medium farm machinery through loans and direct sales of such machinery to farmers.
Recent happenings seem to question whether the authority is still rendering the services expected by the farmers especially at its catchment areas.
Speaking to Daily Trust at Lake Geriyo, a peasant farmer Malam Mustapha Mohammad Sani said he has been a farmer all his life but wonders why farming activities are declining, alleging that the agencies that used to assist farmers with inputs and implements have stopped assisting.
In his words: "Lake Geriyo was founded by Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority to encourage dry season farming but today nothing is coming from the agency and farmers need assistance from the government to enable them produce food".
Malam Mustapha stressed the need for the Upper Benue to rehabilitate the major and smaller water channels to make the farms more active and produce more grains.
According to him, "Upper Benue used to supply fertilizer to farmers in good time to encourage farming activities within its zone but today nothing is coming from the authority, not even a tractor"
Like other farmers at Geriyo Lake, he observed that in the whole Lake Geriyo there are only two functional tractors and out of the seven engines pumping water to farmers, only three are functional.
He added that, "This is not enough and the engines are very old today".
The farmers said that they are working on the farms with the little resources available to them because government has stopped providing them with fertilizer and other implements for many years now while the number of farmers is always on the increase.
Alhaji Salisu Umar another farmer observed that if measures are not taken, the water might soon dry-up due to over use by farmers and herdsmen.
He recalled that upper Benue used to sell kinds of seeds to farmers in the zone, but things have drastically changed.
Another farmer who preferred anonymity observed that all secondary reservoirs and farms do not get enough water and the major distributing channels no longer flow into the farms very well, not to talk of minor ones.
The farmer lamented that the main water intake from the river banks is not stable as a result of the soft sand. He therefore appealed to the state and the Federal government to hastily construct the main water intake point to stop Lake Geriyo from total collapse.
He alleged, "as a result of bad farm management, even areas set aside for vegetable farming has not been developed and used by farmers, rather it is minimally used for maize. The whole Lake Geriyo farms, if efforts are not taken will soon die because of bad farm management".
He said only thing the Upper Benue is now doing is issuance of small water pumps to farmers at the cost of N10,000 on loan. But when contacted for comments, the Managing Director of the Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority through the Executive Director Operations, Eng.Abubakar S.Usman denied the allegations by the farmers that preferential treatment is being experienced by the officers given the responsibility to manage Lake Geriyo.
He explained that the authority is committed to providing developed irrigable land and water resources master plan of data bank in the Upper Benue Basin Zone.
He told Daily Trust in an interview that the present management is poised to improving overall standard of living through optimal provision of water resource in a way that could enhance public health, food security, poverty reduction while maintaining the integrity of fresh water ecosystem of the Upper Benue Basin .
Eng. Abubakar S. Usman said the Upper Benue River basin Development Authority is working assiduously to meet the aspirations of the farmers within the zone.
"No, it's not true that nothing has been done to salvage the situation. We are working seriously to assist farmers through provision of farmers through provision of farm implements and input which include loan as well as improved seeds", the managing director said.
He noted that water management is considered essential for development of the nation's development; hence, the Upper Benue will not relent in working with experts to achieve.
He said that there are a number of challenges, but was confident that a at the end of tunnel there should be light, hence he called on farmers to remain calm and resilience.
"Better river management needs cooperation by all stakeholders especially farmers to tap surface water resources, this is expected by strengthening information sharing, strategic thinking, co-operation and co-ordination among cooperative societies accredited by the authority", he said.
He said the Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority is limited to development of water resources potentials within its defined area of jurisdiction. The operation area covers the whole of Gombe and Taraba States, about 85% Adamawa and 40% of Bauchi State.
He said the agency, UBRBDA, was left with dam construction and development of irrigation schemes. These developments are capital intensive and the projects have long gestation periods, while new earth moving machineries are needed for land development purpose.
Usman said to ensure development of irrigation sector, government should commit a reasonable percentage of its annual budget towards completion of some viable irrigation schemes.
He revealed that from 1999-2008 the authority had a budget of N17bn but only N5bn was released.
He said inspite of the numerous challenges the authority was able to carry out its obligation which include routine maintenance of existing dam; facilitate the production of 144,809 tons of assorted crops and vegetables valued at N2.6bn.
Others are drilling of borehole, construction of small earth dams with irrigation components under the millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and creating an employment opportunity through water users Associations.
As the economic meltdown and food crisis continue to bite, there are strong indications that the northern parts of the country will continue to face a number of challenges around water management, among which climate change and variability are the most important.
Evidence of this is found in high frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, and hence the need for government to strengthen river basin organizations in the country. Because many of the adverse effects of economic and food crisis could have been avoided if river basin organizations, like Upper Benue are properly harnessed.
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