Kano State Agro Pastoral Development Project, KSADP, has earmarked the sum of about N200 million in the rehabilitation of Watari Dam and Irrigation Project, one of the 23 Dams in the state.
The rehabilitation work is one of the measures being taken by the state government under the scheme to mitigate the threat to food security and nutrition by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The rehabilitation work was announced in the statement sign by KSADP`s project coordinator, Ibrahim Garba Muhammad, which was made available to BusinessDay on Wednesday in Kano.
The statement stated that already, preliminary technical assessment of the Watari Dam which is situated Bagwai town about 100 km outside the commercial city of Kano is being conducted by a team of engineers and surveyors.
Also, the statement said the consultancy for the design and supervision of the work, as well as the development of additional land for the irrigation component of the project has been advertised.
“The project will invest in the rehabilitation of the Watari canal and drainages, including the night reservoir to mitigate gully erosion that is threatening the dam embankment. More than 150 hectares of land damaged within the vicinity of the land will be reclaimed. Barring any eventuality, this work will start by October, this year.
“Also, the 1000 hectares of land downstream will be developed, using gravity for irrigation for about 4,000 new farmers for rice, wheat and vegetable production.
“The project will also fund the rehabilitation of other irrigation facilities or the development of new irrigation schemes within the state, even as we will support smallholder farmers to access equipment for land preparation, harvest, and post-harvest operations. This will sustainably increase production, yield and make crops residues and agro-industrial by-products more abundant for animal feeding.
“We also realized that while the state is making the effort to boost Rice production in Fadama, the utilization of rice straw is still minimal with most producers burning them to prepare the land for dry season farming.
“However, since rice straw can be treated with urea and fed to livestock to achieve reasonable weight gains, the project will identify at least 1,000 unemployed youth, group them into 200 production hubs around irrigation schemes and support each group with grant/credit for machines and materials, to produce and sell rice straw/urea mix feed. This activity will by far increase the availability of crop residue for livestock in the State”, the noted.
In the same vein, the statement pointed out that through the project, the ‘Sasakawa SG 2000 Services’, currently being implemented will impact on thousands of farmers of rice and maize selected from various local government areas, providing them with training, inputs warehousing, and marketing services.
The statement concluded that all the necessary paper work has been done, clearance from the Islamic Development Bank is being expected, and hopefully, in the next few days, the work will commence.
