As part of the events to commemorate the 2021 World Food Day, the Ministry of Water Resources has signed a $350,000 Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to promote irrigation farming in Nigeria.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on Wednesday in Abuja, FAOs Representative in Nigeria and the ECOWAS, Fred Kafeero, said the FAO would provide the money to fund drip irrigation systems at selected irrigation schemes in Nigeria.
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He said the initiative would bring more youths, smallholder farmers and other vulnerable groups to engage in the production of high-value crops through the utilization of cheaper and smaller food production techniques all year round.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Esther Didi Walson-Jack, who presided over the meeting, said the TCP would add about 20 to 25 hectares of irrigated land to what the country already had, adding: “This will bring us closer to our target for the year 2025 which to have 270,000 hectares of irrigated land.”
