The federal government has handed over an irrigation project worth over N10billion to peasant farmers in Auyo Local Government Area of Jigawa State.
The project, which covers over 2,000 hectares of land, is being supported by the World Bank and aimed at assisting rural farmers to engage in all-year-round farming.
The project is being undertaken by the Hadejia-Jamaare River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA).
Handing over the project to Governor Badaru Abubakar in Yamdi village, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, an engineer, described the completion of the project as a fulfillment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to the people of the area during a visit in 2018.
According to the minister, about 200 peasant farmers are expected to benefit from yesterday’s handover.
He put the initial cost of the project at N 9.3billion, with an additional budgetary provision of N 1.48bn. He said the project had attained 74 per cent completion, noting that by June next year, it would have been 100 per cent completed.
Governor Badaru, in his message, commended President Buhari for the gesture, saying that with the handover of the project, the beneficiaries would have been saved from expending a lot of resources to purchase equipment, in addition to saving valuable time.
