As part of an effort to boost food security through enhanced agricultural production, the agricultural authorities are working with players in the private sector to provide small scale farmers with easy to use technology.
They are hopeful this will go along a long way to end irrigation related challenges faced by small scale farmers across the country.
The Nigerian agriculture system is not yielding as much returns as it shoild in terms of cultivation and output.
Apart from issues around funding , irrigation is also a big challenge to the sector particularly for subsistence farmers.
Research has shown that about a percent of the country’s crop land is cultivated with majority of farmers having to depend on rains for irrigation.
The agricultural authorities are now trying to change this narrative through collaboration with partners to make available to small holder farmers, low cost irrigation equipment that can help them cultivate more, even beyond the rainy season.
Inadequate irrigation mechanisms are a catalyst for vulnerability to changes in climate in food insure climes.
The agriculture authorities feel that improved irrigation systems through evolving technologies could help the country reduce such associated risks, which have inhibited productive farming.
The easy to use and farmer friendly technology now being adopted for smallholder farmers is anticipated to impact the country’s agricultural sector in so many positive ways.
Agriculture experts believe the use of small scale irrigation systems has the ability to transform the nation’s agriculture sector.
They feel the cultivation of the country’s major crops could yield much more in income for farmers who would bow be able to better engage in year round farming.
