Alleviating Poverty and Hunger through Irrigation Schemes in Nigeria: A Study Case of Lower Anambra River Basin Authority in Omor Anambra State

Nigeria has a total area of is 923,768km2 with a population of about 219,949,958 and estimated growth rate of about 2.4% per annum (NPC, 2017). According to World Bank, (2021) about 100 million of Nigerian population live in rural areas with average annual population growth of about 1.54%. The country has fertile soils and climate suitable for production of variety of crops that can provide enough food and raw materials for the industries that will alleviate hunger and poverty (FAO, 2012). Nigeria is also blessed with abundant water resources which include about 267 billion cubic metres of underground water, many rivers and streams, lakes and abundant rainfall in the southern part of the country; however, the amount and timing of rainfalls are not adequate to meet the water requirement of crops (Ahameku, 2010; Umeghalu, et al., 2013). The country is well drained with a close network of rivers and streams (Iloeje, 1980; Ladokun, et al., 2013). Figure 1, showing some major rivers and streams in Nigeria (FAO, 2015). 1.1 Nigeria’s Surface River Basins: FIGURE 1: Map of Nigeria showing some major FIGURE 2: Nigerian’ssurface River Basins. rivers. (Source: FAO, 2015) (Source: FAO, 2012)

Nigeria is blessed with many rivers and streams. Among these numerous rivers and streams, are four principal surface water basins namely; the River Niger, the Lake Chad, the West Coast and the West Central also known as South-eastern Littoral Basin (Oshodi, 2006). These surface water basins are further subdivided into twelve river basins; the Benue, Delta and Cross River, the Imo – Anambra, Hadejia-Jam’are, Chad, Sokoto-Rima, Lower Niger, Upper Niger, Benin-Owena and Ogun-Osun River Basins.

Studies by Mahmood (1994) observed that over US$3billion had been invested on the construction of these irrigation and drainage projects that constitute over 300 dams and reservoirs. Figure 2, above shows river system in Nigeria and their organization into River Basins (FAO, 2016). The country is also endowed with over 79 million hectares of arable land of which only about 3.14 million hectares have potential to be irrigated (Okigbo, 1986; Eni, 2008). 1.2 Status of agriculture in Nigeria and pressure of increasing population: Agricultural sector holds second position after oil and gas as the key to the development of the socio-economic and political life of Nigeria, contributing over 60% of her Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and employs over 70% of the country’seconomic active population. Regardless that more than half of the active population of the country are occupied in the agricultural sector, the sector could not produce enough food for the populace and raw materials to feed the industries. This is attributable to heavy reliance on rainfed agriculture, use of rudimentary traditional methods and techniques, shifting cultivation farming systems and subsistence farming which have led to low agricultural yields (World Bank, 2008; Ahameku, 2010; Umeghalu, et al., 2013; Odigbo, 2016).

The pressure of population explosion and low agricultural yields has resulted to poverty and food insecurity in the country (Umeghalu et al., 2013). Poverty is defined as a condition of lacking money and the necessities, such as food, water, education, healthcare, shelter and clothing needed to successfully live, which is often measured in terms of daily income of US$1.25 and US$2.0 (Akande, 2006; Ravallion, 1992). Thus, poverty is one of the global phenomena that have left the level of food insecurity in developing countries at alarming proportions. Poverty situation tends to worsen in reaches of a system where surface water availability is low, groundwater quality is poor, agricultural productivity is low and opportunities in the nonfarm sector are limited. Olatideet al. (1980) posited that, poverty remains a persistent feature of many developing countries, despite over a century of debate and action and over forty years of international aid to transform the livelihoods of the poor. The causes of poverty are complex and context-specific, but in general poverty tends to be linked with factors such as poor national economic performance, unequal distribution of income and political structures that render poor people powerless (Cohen and Reaves, 1995). According to World Bank (2000), Sub-Saharan Africa had an estimated poverty headcount of 47% in 1990 and 46.7% in 1998. United Nations (2015) also reported that overwhelmingly, the majority of people living on less than $1.25 a day reside in two regions of the World: Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and they account for about 80% of global total extremely poor people. Furthermore, nearly 60% of the World’s 1 billion extremely poor people live in just five countries: India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh and Democratic Republic of Congo (UN, 2015). But in contrast, those regions such as the Middle East, East Asia, who have the greatest proportion of cultivated land, have experienced the greatest poverty reduction, compliment to exploitation of irrigation (Lipton and Litchfield, 2002). Improvements in crop yield have been made possible by the development of hybrid and improved seed varieties used in combination with good water control and fertilizer application. It is important to note that one of the infrastructures which irrigation provides is access road. Bacha et al. (2011) noted in his studies, that farmers could easily access irrigation facilities, improve farm productivity and subsequently increase their household consumption. 1.3 Effect of Irrigation on agricultural production: Irrigation has been regarded as a powerful factor in increasing crop productivity, enhancing food security, expanding opportunities for higher and more stable incomes and employment and for increasing prospects for multiple cropping and crop diversification. The role of irrigation in poverty alleviation has been focus of many international communities and groups in recent years. This is because many reviews have found strong direct and indirect relationships between irrigation and poverty (Hussain and Hanjra, 2004). Irrigation makes higher crop yield possible, less reliance on rainfed agriculture, and encourages agricultural production more than once in a year by providing water which is an integral element to food production. According to Bhattarai et al, (2002), irrigated agriculture significantly contributes towards generating rural employment and maintaining rural livelihoods. Furthermore, Unver et al, 2018) noted that irrigation enables smallholders to adopt more diversified cropping patterns and to switch from low value subsistence production to high value market oriented production. Food is available and affordable when agricultural production is increased.

In an effort to meet national target on poverty reduction, and food insecurity, the Federal Government of Nigeria realized the need to achieve a strategic balance through irrigation than the rainfed agricultural production that accounts for the bulk on Nigeria’sagricultural production at lower cost per hectare but is more vulnerable to draught, floods and other impacts of climate change (Umeghalu and Okonkwo, 2012; Enete, 2014; FAO, 2015). It is imperative that to realize the country’sagricultural potentials where agricultural production are based on rainfed cultivation, there is need to improve on methods of sourcing sufficient water for agricultural production to compliment whatever water that is naturally available. Expanding small-scale irrigation is one of the necessary steps or method in a larger movement towards more sustainable and equitable agricultural growth which will break the annual cycle of uncertainty and stagnation in securing local food systems and stable economic growth (FAO. 2013b; Liangzhi et al., 2015). Therefore, it becomes pertinent to formulate policies and programmes that will solve the problem of insufficient water for agricultural production. In achieving this, the Federal Government of Nigeria therefore established the National Irrigation and Drainage Policy aimed to achieve sustainable growth and to enhance performance of irrigation, contributing fully to the goals of the Nigerian agricultural sector (FAO, 2015). Various water management projects which include construction of irrigation systems such as river basins, flood, sprinkler and surface water irrigation schemes were established. Thus, a well-developed irrigation system which would provide the boost that is required to make the leap from rainfed to grower led agricultural production in Nigeria (FOA, 2015).

World Bank (2008) noted that the high incidence of poverty inmost developing world is attributable to heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture, subsistence farming and exclusion from trade. However, irrigation brings a range of potential changes in agricultural production and even assures cropping and more secure food supply for basic needs which is often the priority of smallholder subsistence producers. Studies by Hussein et al., (2001), show that comparing agricultural production under rain-fed and irrigation setting, it was observed that poverty was much higher in settings without irrigation; and further shows that poverty incidence varies from 16% to 58% in irrigated settings and between 23% and 77% in rain-fed setting which shows that irrigation has significant impact on poverty. Irrigation encourages agricultural diversification as it makes growing variety of crops all the year round possible such as vegetables, okra and other products of market gardening. This reduces the likelihood of non-poor household becoming poor and poor households remaining poor (Michler and Josephson, 2017). Northern part of Nigeria experiences lower rainfall with prolonged dry season. Shifting cultivation system of agriculture is predominant and crops cultivated in the region are rice, groundnuts, millet, sorghum, yam, cassava and maize. The southern part experiences average annual rainfall of between 2,000mm and 4,000mm, with shorter dry season is more suitable for cultivation of rice, root crops and maize. Tree crops such as cocoa, oil palm tree are also grown in this part of Nigeria. But regardless the heavy rainfalls in the southern part of the country, its unreliability in terms of onset, duration, intensity and amount for agricultural production calls for irrigation infrastructure to boost agricultural production, by minimizing the risks associated with rainfall unreliability (Onwualu, 2005; Abubakar, 2010; Faborode, 2001; Umeghalu, 2019).Irrigation can change the cropping timetable to take advantage of good weather conditions or avoid periods with hazards like heavy rainfall or draught. FAO, (1999) reported that irrigation provides about 40% of World’sfood production on only 17% of total cultivated land. 1.4 Establishment of irrigation system in Nigeria: In 2021, the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Water Resources reported that it has completed 10 more dams and 4 irrigation projects across 10 states in the country while six irrigation projects are on-going in 5 states meant to boost agricultural production and support the nation’squest for food insecurity by reducing farmers’ dependency on rain-fed agricultural practices.