‘Our dams are not efficient

farmland

It has been noted that dams in Nigeria are yet to be effectively and efficiently utilized. This is the view held by the Chief Executive Officer; High hill Agri-Business Development Centre, Adeniyi Sola Bunmi.


Adeniyi, a certified agribusiness consultant-cum-value chain expert disclosed this in an online chat with AgroNigeria on Thursday. “Nigeria is yet to get her priority right. Nothing is working in this nation,” Bunmi highlighted

According to him, for the dams nationwide to work effectively and efficiently too, ‘all the stakeholders need total reorientation.’

“Government need to actually understand the potential of the dams and be ready to put in place all required equipment and manpower to actualize her current drive towards sustainable agricultural development.

“As a new generation farmers we can’t afford to practice agriculture the way our fathers did so we need to be proactive and have eagle eyes for opportunities. We must recognize that agriculture is a very risky business,” Adeniyi maintained.

Speaking on the need to irrigate farms, Adeniyi said reasons for irrigation are wide, varied and differ for each situation.

For him, irrigation “provides greater certainty with production than is possible with dry land farming; provides options for diversification or intensification, allows farmers to grow more vegetables, crops, pasture and increase livestock production.

“It allows farmers to maintain quality over a critical dry period; ensures crops are not affected by moisture stress at critical growing times; provides greater opportunity to gain vegetables/crops response to fertilizer application faster.”

He further noted that “for irrigation to be sustainable, the benefits must increase income sufficiently to cover the costs of development and provide an acceptable return on investment.”