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Rice farm

 Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) on Sunday decried insufficient water supply to irrigation sites by the Hadeja-Jama’are River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA).


The Organising Secretary of the association in Kano State, Alhaji Isah Bawa, made the complaint in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano.

Bawa said the authority had not been supplying sufficient water to the farmers at the time it was most needed.

“This is one of the problems affecting our irrigation activities and we don’t know why. “When we need the water most, they will not give us,” Bawa said.

He also said that the association had complained several times but the authority had not been able to rectify the problem.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of authority, Alhaji Salisu Hamzat, however, said that the authority was always alerting farmers through their various associations whenever there was problems in water supply to the sites.

“The authority usually keeps farmers informed of the problem through their associations.’’
“Sometimes we reduce the volume of water as a deliberate effort to make sure that water released does not cause problem to the crops,” he said.

Hamzat, who spoke on behalf of the Managing Director, Alhaji Abdu Dahiru, complained that some farmers were, however, reluctant in paying water charges. “But we still released water to avoid causing problems to their crops.’’

He urged them to be paying the charges promptly to enhance authority’s services to farmers, adding that the authority would continue to support farmers to boost dry season farming.

“We also want farmers to understand the challenges being faced by the authority, particularly on the issue of typha grass, prime rose and other dangerous aquatic weeds,” he stressed. (NAN)