Irrigation management in Nigeria: Lessons from the Kano River irrigation scheme

• Published in: Irrigation and drainage 2021-07, Vol.70 (3), p.517-523
• Main Authors: Oluniyi, Esther Oyeronke, Bala, Muhammad Sani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural credit; Agricultural development; association des utilisateurs de l'eau d'irrigation (WUA); Commercialization; cost recovery; Development strategies; Economics; Farms; Food security; frais de service d'irrigation; gestion participative de l'irrigation; Irrigation; irrigation service charge; irrigation water user's association (WUA); Land use; Marketing; participatory irrigation management (PIM); PIM; recouvrement des coûts; River basin development; River basins; Rivers; Rural development; Transformations; Water management
• ISSN: 1531-0353; 1531-0361
• DOI: 10.1002/ird.2586

Nigeria has, in the past, tried various rural development strategies to achieve agricultural development and national food security. Among these has been the setting up of farm settlement schemes, marketing boards, the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme, Operation Feed the Nation, the Land Use Decree, etc. These could not achieve much because of various political, economic and social characteristics of the Nigerian population. As a further step, river basin development authorities (RBDAs) were established. The objectives of the RBDAs and their geographical coverage brought the confidence and the possibility of finally achieving the goal of rural transformation. However, like other schemes, the RBDAs are beset with problems which are also inherent in the present economic set‐up of the country, and which would require double the energy spent in the past, to have the RBDAs perform the wonders, which the other strategies have failed to achieve. In redoubling efforts towards improved rural transformation, participatory irrigation management (PIM) began to occupy the irrigation space of the RBDAs, especially in the northern part of the country in the mid‐1990s. These efforts were then met with challenges that threatened the PIM initiatives a few years after inception. This paper examines these challenges and the current efforts by government in addressing the challenges, with a view to refocusing future public irrigation development and management in Nigeria. Résumé Le Nigéria a, dans le passé, essayé diverses stratégies de développement rural pour parvenir au développement agricole et à la sécurité alimentaire nationale. Parmi ceux‐ci, il y a la mise en place de plans de colonisation agricole, de bureau de commercialisation, de système de garantie du crédit agricole, de l'opération Nourrir la nation, du décret sur l'utilisation des terres, etc. Ceux‐ci n'ont pas pu obtenir beaucoup de résultats en raison de diverses caractéristiques politiques, économiques et sociales de la population nigériane. Comme étape supplémentaire, les autorités de développement des bassins fluviaux (RBDA) ont été créées. Les objectifs des RBDA et leur couverture géographique ont apporté la confiance et la possibilité d'atteindre enfin l'objectif de transformation rurale. Cependant, comme d'autres programmes, les RBDA sont confrontés à des problèmes qui sont également inhérents à la configuration économique actuelle du pays, et qui exigeraient le double de l'énergie dépensée dans le p