After gulping billions, Gurara irrigation site lays waste

One of the federal government’s massive irrigation projects is the Gurara Irrigation Project sited in Jere Local Government Area of Kaduna State, about 72km away from Abuja, the federal capital territory. The irrigation structure was a key component of the Gurara Multipurpose Dam Project awarded by the federal government at the initial sum of N15.1 […]

One of the federal government’s massive irrigation projects is the Gurara Irrigation Project sited in Jere Local Government Area of Kaduna State, about 72km away from Abuja, the federal capital territory.

The irrigation structure was a key component of the Gurara Multipurpose Dam Project awarded by the federal government at the initial sum of N15.1 billion in 2001 to transfer water from Gurara Dam to Lower Usuma Dam to meet Abuja’s water needs.

However, in 2007, the federal government added additional components (hydro-power plant and the pilot irrigation farming projects), which raised the cost from N38.5 billion to N54.3 billion.

The agro-irrigation component of the project has 6,000 hectares of farmland designed to house both smallholder and commercial farmers and when fully developed, the project has a potential of 12,000 hectares.

Two companies executed the project: SCC Nigeria Limited handled 4,000 hectares, while Salini Nigeria Limited developed 2,000 hectares.

SCC Nigeria Limited handled the water distribution system for the project, including 29km (1,400mm steel) pipeline, 100,000m3 regulating water reservoirs, secondary distribution system, and on-farm distribution system, which covers the 4,000 hectares.

The project is designed with five types of irrigation systems: pressure irrigation, irrigation with fixed sprinklers, drip irrigation, mobile irrigation with sprinkler and pivot irrigation systems.

A visit to the site showed how pathetic the project has become. The road leading to the project site is now in a bad shape while most of the motorised pivots are no longer functional.

It appears the federal government is losing its investment because the multi-billion naira project has not been able to achieve the targeted success and many farmers who initially went into cultivation have abandoned the site because of many daunting issues.

 

Theft, soil depletion chase farmers away

The project is grounded because the Federal Ministry of Water Resources failed to address the project’s current challenges.

One of such issues is the theft of some of the components of the motorized pivots system.

Daily Trust, during the visit, discovered that the theft of cables and other components of the motorized centre pivots and sprinklers has caused many of the systems to stop functioning.

Besides the issue of theft, the few farmers who were on the site complained of the high cost of production due to what they said was a major construction error.

The farmers said the topsoil, which has good fertility for cultivation was scraped during the project construction, leaving the red inner soil that hardly supports crop cultivation.

This situation has forced many farmers into applying fertilizer severally or using cow dung to fertilise the soil thereby raising the cost of production.

Many of the farmers who attempted to farm in the project area had to abandon the idea after the first or second year as a result of poor yield resulting from soil depletion, large quantity of fertilizer needed and the high cost of maintaining good soil texture.

Daily Trust gathered that before the commissioning of the project, SCC Nigeria Limited, which constructed the project, initially provided security for the facilities but withdrew its men after the project handover to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources. However, since the ministry took over in 2014, the project has degenerated into a shadow of itself.

Farmers asked to leave for concession, site now desolate

 The federal government had asked the farmers to leave though the attempt to concession 1000 hectares for commercial farming has not fully taken off.

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) had listed the project for Public Private Partnership projects (PPP) opportunities for the 2016/2017 season.

The concession was for the “operations and maintenance of about 1000Ha irrigation infrastructure for commercial agriculture at Gurara 1 Dam, Azare-Jere, Kaduna State, to lease the irrigation facilities built by the federal government to private investors for optimal use.”

The cost of the 1000 hectares was put at N2.1 billion.

Sources at the farm told this reporter that the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, owners of the project, had ordered farmers to stop cultivation because it plans to hand over the irrigation to a private company that will better manage it.

One of the seed-producing companies at the site which Daily Trust met during one of its visits, has already stopped production.

Some years ago, the management of the site shut down water supply to the dam because farmers who were active on the site are said to have reneged on paying dues to the ministry – a situation that has affected some farmers as their crops withered away.

Farmers disappointed

For many farmers in the area, the inability of the government to maintain the facility is most unfortunate.

“The initial arrangement was to allow the host community access to some parts of the irrigation but because most of the mortised central pivots are not working, the project has been left to lay waste,” Sani Abubakar, who lives in Jere town, said.

He said in the 2014/2015 farming season, many farmers went to the site and both small and middle scale farmers were busy producing maize and vegetables but that has now stopped.

“We are talking about diversification and employment in agriculture this project is left to rot away. A project that has the potential to create jobs and feed the people of Abuja if put to proper use, but government does not care, even after spending huge money to construct it,” John Auta who lives in a nearby community, said.

He said if the project is put into proper use, many of the youths in Abuja could be attracted to the site and it will create job opportunities, accelerate development as agro-processing facilities could spring up all around.

“You know the Hausa like to grow vegetables, just put this place into proper shape and you will see Hausa boys from Abuja relocating here. There are many farmers who want to produce maize but no way. The few here stubbornly do it during the wet season but for dry season, nothing,” Bulus Danjuma, a resident of the area said.

The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, has said all irrigation sites across the country would be fixed and put to use to address the food crisis in the country.

During a recent interview with our agric editor, the minister assured that efforts were on to fix Gurara irrigation project which, he said, would boost food production in the country.