Spike in cost of irrigation lands as farmers flock Taraba

Thousands of farmers from different parts of the country have moved to Taraba State in search of land for dry season rice production.

Due to the influx, the cost of renting land for irrigation has also gone up by almost 300 per cent, according to farmers in the state.

Our correspondent who visited some irrigation sites in the state gathered that some of the farmers came from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna and Kebbi states.

Weekend Trust further gathered that many  farmers from states in the South-South, South-West and South-East are also participating in irrigation farming in Taraba this year.

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The irrigation fields are located in Lau, Karim Lamido,  ArdoKola, Gassol, Donga and Wukari and along the bank of River Benue and other rivers in the state.

Most of the farmers have already started planting rice in their farms.

Findings by Weekend Trust revealed that the number of people that came for irrigation farming into the state this year is the highest in recent years.

Adamu Abubakar, a farmer from Kebbi State, told our correspondent that he had been conducting dry season farming in Taraba State for the past four years at the Sheka irrigation fields in Gassol Local Government Area.

The farmer said he made profits from irrigation farming in Taraba, and this year, he came along with four of his friends from Kebbi, and all of them were allocated plots of land.

He said the land at Sheka is fertile and vast and water is also available for all the farmers. He added that farmers were attracted to Taraba State because of good yield.

“The only problem is that there is no irrigation facility like water canals, and farmers would have to provide either engine or solar water pumping machines, as well as dig boreholes in their farms,” he noted.

Another farmer, Yakubu Sani from Yobe State, told Weekend Trust that Taraba State had become a hub for irrigation farming as thousands of farmers go to carry out dry season rice farming in the state each year.

He said, “This is my third year of coming to Taraba State to participate in irrigation farming. And l have made good fortune in these three years of my farming adventure in the state.”

However, many of the farmers interviewed said that this year, owners of farmlands increased their charges, three times that of the previous years.

They said labourers also increased their charges, even as the cost of fuel and inputs is high.

“We have no option than to embark on irrigation farming despite the high cost of production. It is our hope that we would make profit because we lost our investments during the wet season as a result of drought. And we did not get any incentive from the government,” he said.

Yerima Isa Tafida, a large-scale farmer, told our correspondent that Taraba State had witnessed an influx of farmers from different parts of the country this year.

He said the farmers were taking advantage of a vast fertile land and available water to engage in irrigation farming in the state.

He said hundreds of farmers from different parts of the state trooped to Sheka irrigation fields to engage in dry season farming.

The state chairman of the Rice Farmers Association, Tanko Bobbo Andami, said Taraba had become a centre for dry season rice farming.

He said the vast, fertile land located in the bank of River Benue covered over 230 kilometres and can accommodate thousands of farmers.

He, however, said that lack of irrigation facilities and access roads and incentives to farmers made irrigation farming very costly.

“There is a high demand for paddy rice in the country; that is why more people are trooping into the state to carry out dry season rice farming. And there are always buyers,” he said.

He called on Taraba State and the federal government to provide irrigation canals and water channels to supply water to farmers from both River Benue and River Taraba and Donga so as to make water available to farmers and reduce the money they spend in fuelling their water-pumping machines.