FG urged to build small dam for agricultural purposes to boost massive food production

The Federal Government has been urged to build small dam for agricultural purposes to enable Nigerian farmers have access to water for all round farming activities for massive food production.

Jimmy Adegoke, a renowned expert in Climate Science whose work on environmental threats and sustainable development, made the call.

Speaking during his lecture with the theme: ‘A Tale of Two Cities: Climate Threats and Economic Opportunities at the Confluence of the Great Rivers Niger and Benue’ at the Federal University Lokoja, Adegoke disclosed that Rivers Benue and Niger, as important as they, only provide limited volumes of water to the country.

“Now, what other parts of the world or other countries have done, was the creation of series of dams along the parts of the rivers because rivers have a singular purpose which is to evacuate water from inland areas to the sea or ocean and the river does that every day.

“To slow down the flow process, there is the need to create dams and it shouldn’t be a massive or big dam. It could be a small dam called earth dams and the strategy is a water detention or water retention strategy so that the rain-fed agriculture that is being practised in Nigeria and other African countries which is our main source of food production can be improved by creating a buffer such that agriculture can still continue, progress and develop whether there is rain or not,” he said.

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According to him, “The only way this can be done is to take advantage of the rivers in the country and create water-retention system by slowing down the flow of the water, then create dams across parts of the country and that will provide enough water for year-round agricultural purposes.

For instance, rice is mostly planted once in a year in most parts of Nigeria. Corn and other food items that can be harvested with three or four months are cultivated once a year which is one season.

“There is nothing that stopped us in Nigeria from having three seasons of corn, beans because they only last for three months from planting to harvest.

“The only limiting factor is that our agriculture is dependent on rain fall and agricultural activities are concentrated around the rain. In some parts of the country, rain lasts for about three months which is June, July, August which is a brake and by September the rain is gone.

“If the Nigerian government and farmers want to improve on productivity, then there is need to produce more food through the retention of water that flows through our rivers to the ocean and that is the agricultural strategy that leverages on the fact that Nigeria has two major rivers.

“These are rivers that flow year-round across the country. Aside Rivers Benue and Niger, there are other rivers such as Kaduna River, Ogun River, among others.”

“Government should build small dams for agricultural purposes so that Nigerian farmers can have water for all round farming activities and there will be massive food production.”