Lack of diesel to power plants stalls irrigation activities at Jibia

Katsina irrigation farmers are worried over delay by government to provide them with fertiliser and other farm inputs to commence their farming activities. This is just as farmers under the Jibia irrigation project urged government to provide the Jibia River Basin Development Authority with diesel to power its plants that supply them with water for […]

Katsina irrigation farmers are worried over delay by government to provide them with fertiliser and other farm inputs to commence their farming activities.
This is just as farmers under the Jibia irrigation project urged government to provide the Jibia River Basin Development Authority with diesel to power its plants that supply them with water for irrigation.
Chairman of the Jibia irrigation farmers association, Malam Audi, said farmers in the area have cleared their farms, waiting for water to be released for the start of irrigation farming but officials of the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority, overseeing Jibia dam said they have not been supplied diesel to power their engines to pump the water.
While Jibia dam is owned and managed by the federal ministry of water resources, farming activities in the area are supervised by the federal ministry of agriculture and for several years Katsina State Government has provided the diesel used in powering the plants that pump water to about 3,000 hectares of farmland around the Jibia Dam used by no fewer than 2,000 indigenous farmers and those from the neighbouring Niger Republic.
Irrigation farmers under the Fadama project in the state were left in a dilemma as the state government was yet to pay its counterpart funds to enable them continue to take part in the project.
The state government was expected to pay N40 million per year while each of the participating local government areas in the state were supposed to pay N2 million as counterpart funds.
A top official of the state government said by failing to pay its counterpart fund, the state government was losing $3.5 million, equivalent of about N700 million yearly.
One of the benefiting farmers, Musa Dutsinma said: “That means that this year will also go like that if the state government fails to pay the counterpart funding to enable us continue with the exercise. The last time we took part in the Fadama project was in August 2012.
“There are 194 registered farmers’ cooperative associations and 1,836 farmers’ user groups under the scheme. We gain a lot from the project where we have easy access to fertiliser, inputs and modern farming techniques among others. If the state fails to pay, it means all that is gone.”
An official of the state ministry of agriculture who spoke on condition of anonymity because he has no authority to talk to the press, said government bureaucracy was delaying the commencement of the programme, adding that fertilisers and other irrigation incentives were on the ground waiting for ‘those that matter “to give the go-ahead” for them to be shared.