How abandoned dam affects irrigation farming at Kampe

Despite the abandonment of Kampe dam in Kogi State, irrigation farmers in Ejiba area who are mainly smallholder farmers are still making a living with it through crops and fish farming, some of the farmers along the irrigation carnal told Daily Trust that they are carrying out farming activities on their own using water from […]

Despite the abandonment of Kampe dam in Kogi State, irrigation farmers in Ejiba area who are mainly smallholder farmers are still making a living with it through crops and fish farming, some of the farmers along the irrigation carnal told Daily Trust that they are carrying out farming activities on their own using water from the dam’s ancillary network of the main canal to irrigate their crops.
One the farmers, Saidu Yellow, who cultivates maize, tomato and pepper said the area is prominent for the production of crops such as maize, okro, pepper, tomatoes and vegetables among others. Fish farming is also thriving in the area.
Another farmer, Ibrahim Oche said: “Our farms are few kilometers from the irrigation channels and there are some openings on the channels through which we irrigate our farms and it is helpful to us. We are all making a living from the farms. We also want centres where we can market our produce every day,” he said.
Also speaking to Daily Trust were some fish farmers, Ajibade Wole Adebayo and Shuaibu Omale, who said they are just a year old in the area, also said that they are making use of the irrigation facility for their fish farming.
Adebayo said though the water is there but they have to lay some pipes to channel the water to be able to use it properly for their fish farming, adding that they have three ponds with each containing about 2,000 fish and that they have harvested twice with the profit realised very encouraging.
Ajibade and his partner are fresh graduates of agriculture from the Federal University of Technology, Mina and College of Agriculture, New Bussa respectively who wanted to key into the federal government’s programme under YOUWIN.
“Actually, what brought us here was the YOUWIN programme by the federal government. We wrote a proposal to them but the proposal was rejected on the excuse that it was not good but the rejected proposal that the federal government said won’t work is working for us here. After the rejection, we decided to source for some fund and tried it on our own. As you can see it is really working. We also produce fingerlings here,” he said.
When Daily Trust visited the dam, it was observed that there were some abandoned fish ponds in the area that have been left unattended to for some years due to low patronage by farmers as a result of non-functioning and non-utilization of the dam since it was constructed.
Kampe Dam which was constructed for irrigation purposes among others, was commissioned on May 12, 1999 by then head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, but since then, the dam whose length is 1,976 meters with a reservoir capacity of 250 million cubic meters of water, has been completely abandoned by the federal government..
The dam has ancillary of irrigation networks of 39 kilometers length of main canal and about 300 kilometers length of feeder and complementary drainage system capable of irritating approximately 4,100 hectares of farmland that is wasting away.
The irrigation channels, Daily Trust observed, have been taken over by weeds and water hyacinth due to neglect and non-utilisation by the government.
Commenting, the traditional ruler of Omi community where the dam is located, Olomi of Omi, Oba Bolarin Ogugbemi, lamented that the community is not benefiting from it as the channels led to Ejiba farm centre that is not functioning.
He said they were told that they would have access to water supply from the dam but that till date they have been relegated to the background as even the water treatment plant constructed by the state government has also been abandoned.
“We don’t benefit from the dam. What the community wants is water supply and they told us they would give us drinking water from it but that has not been achieved. The state government only came here to lay pipe over two years ago and abandoned it. Since we are not benefiting from the irrigation, they should provide us with drinking water,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Area Manager, Lower Niger River Basin, Awoniyi Olabisi said the project was not abandoned as some farmers are still making use of it, saying the dam was constructed for the purpose of irrigation, flood control and water supply but that the water supply aspect has not been developed.
“Now there is an arrangement on ground between the state and the federal government on water supply. The state will contribute 40 percent share while the federal government contributes 60 percent share to carry out the water supply project,” he said.
He said the dam is not underutilised because some farmers are still using it for irrigation while a lot of work is being done to make it attractive and available for full usage, adding, “well, farming activities are going on and some fish farmers are also doing some activities too. People come from Onitsha, Enugu to buy fish here now. Had it been you were here in the morning you would have seen how busy our farm gate is because, people from Ondo, Edo, Ogun, Ekiti, Kwara also come to buy things here. So we can’t say the dam is not functioning  or is under utilised but more can be done on it.
“Presently we have a lot of investments going on here; corporate mechanised farming is coming here. In the next two months NNPC will commence fishery here. They are partnering with some Israelites and all the paper work has been completed. So by the time mechanised farming started, it would no longer be the same. The entire farmers here are migrant farmers,” he said.
He said rehabilitation of the road to the dam and the channels are ongoing, as well as the lining of the canal and other engineering work.