Lagos — The Federal Government has earmarked N33 billion for water, aquaculture and environmental management programmes.

Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr Sayyadi Ruma, made this known in Abuja yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria NAN.

He said the fund was part of government's effort to reposition the country's agricultural sector.

According to him, the fund was also aimed at achieving an intensified aquaculture production system and sustainable conservation through construction of small dams and irrigation facilities as well as acquisition of carbon credit through afforestation.

"The target to be realised and the activities to be carried out in order to achieve this development objectives are organised in three sub-programmes," he said.

Ruma said N20 billion of the N33 billion would be spent for water management to tap into the 267.7 billion cubic meter surface water for expansion beyond the current 220,000 hectares of irrigated land.

He said under the water programme, food security and early warning systems would be developed nationwide.

The minister said irrigation, dams and flood control system would also be constructed, adding that existing legislation on water would be developed, reviewed and evaluated

In a bid to achieve these objective, he said compilation of data on water networks across the country had commenced.

"Under the new arrangement, government will target two million tones of fish annually with an income of more than N1.7 trillion," he said.

Ruma said N3 billion had been earmarked for the environmental resource management.

He said the target of environmental resource management was to use Jatropha plantations to combat desertification, control erosion and reclaim more than three million hectares of degraded land across the country.

"This will also generate additional revenue through carbon credit in line with the Carbon Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto protocol," he said.

Ruma said the environment management programme was aimed at raising the level of competitiveness and diversification of domestic sector and maximize the carbon credit accruing to Nigeria.

According to him, the overall agricultural sector goal was to attain national food security by ensuring sustainable access, availability and affordability of quality food and position Nigeria as a net exporter of food.