From Onyenero Mercy, Kaduna
Agricultural development experts have called for the wider adoption of irrigation farming among smallholder farmers in Nigeria, saying it could boost food production, improve rural incomes and reduce the sector’s vulnerability to increasingly unpredictable rainfall.
The experts also urged journalists to intensify reporting on irrigation farming to encourage farmers to embrace year-round agricultural production and push governments to implement policies that support sustainable food security.
The call was made in Kaduna during a media training organised by the Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF), in collaboration with OmniAgrik Specialities Limited and KickStart International.
The training was designed to equip journalists with the knowledge and skills to report on irrigation farming and communicate its benefits to smallholder farmers and the wider public.
Speaking at the event, Dr Ademola Festus, West Africa Regional Manager of KickStart International, said access to appropriate irrigation technologies could enable farmers to extend their growing seasons and make agriculture a more dependable source of livelihood.
He explained that access to water during the dry season would allow farmers to continue producing crops when rain-fed farms become less productive.
According to him, changing rainfall patterns have increasingly exposed farmers to the risks of flooding and drought.
”About 96 per cent of smallholder farmers in Africa depend on rainfall. Farmers who combine irrigation with improved seeds and fertiliser stand to gain the most,” he said.
Festus said improved seeds and fertiliser could increase farmers’ incomes by about two and a half times, while irrigation could raise incomes fourfold by enabling production during both the rainy and dry seasons.
He added that combining the three agricultural inputs could increase farmers’ incomes by as much as ten times.
The KickStart regional manager said dry-season farming could also reduce pest and disease pressure while giving farmers greater control over the quantity and quality of water supplied to their crops.
Beyond boosting agricultural production, he said irrigation could help address farmer-herder tensions by supporting the establishment of water sources and grazing reserves that would enable herders to remain in one location during the dry season rather than move in search of pasture and water.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of OmniAgrik Specialities Limited, Dr Yila Umaru, said traditional irrigation methods, including carrying water from wells and using watering cans, were labour-intensive and limited the amount of farmland farmers could cultivate.
He stressed the need for practical and affordable irrigation systems that would enable smallholder farmers to expand production throughout the year.
Umaru said smallholder farmers produce an estimated 90 to 95 per cent of the food consumed in Nigeria, yet less than five per cent of cultivated land in sub-Saharan Africa is irrigated.
He said the figures underscored the need for greater investment in smallholder irrigation technologies to improve agricultural productivity and strengthen food security.
The OmniAgrik executive director observed that government investments in large-scale irrigation schemes powered by electricity or diesel and supported by canal networks had not always delivered the expected results.
According to him, many of the schemes were either no longer functioning or operating at limited capacity, leaving farmers without reliable access to irrigation infrastructure.
”No country had achieved food self-sufficiency on rain-fed agriculture alone. Irrigation is a game changer for rural communities, which also enhances nutrition and diet in families,” he said.
Umaru called for a shift towards irrigation solutions that are accessible to smallholder farmers, noting that reliable water supply could help rural communities improve their livelihoods and produce a wider variety of crops.
The Executive Director of AMDF, Mr Sekyen Dadik, described irrigation farming as an important tool for poverty reduction and urged journalists to translate the knowledge gained at the training into impactful reporting.
She said media coverage should encourage farmers already practising irrigation to sustain their efforts, motivate others to adopt the practice and draw government attention to policies and programmes requiring implementation.
Dadik also stressed the importance of reporting on existing irrigation policies, particularly those that had been formulated but remained unimplemented.
She said the discussions on how journalism could effectively reach smallholder farmers had been valuable, expressing hope that the information shared during the training would benefit those who needed it most.
”We hope the information shared will reach the smallholder farmers and the general public who need it most,” she said.
The training concluded with a call for journalists to use evidence-based reporting, farmers’ experiences and sustained follow-up investigations to determine whether irrigation programmes were achieving their intended objectives.
Participants were encouraged to report not only on the opportunities offered by irrigation farming but also on the challenges confronting farmers, including access to affordable equipment, reliable water sources and government support.
The experts said sustained media attention could help improve public understanding of irrigation farming, encourage wider adoption among smallholder farmers and hold relevant institutions accountable for commitments aimed at boosting agricultural production and food security.
