Bauchi To Construct 100 Dams For Irrigation Farming

Bauchi State government plans to construct 100 small dams in rural communities to boost dry season irrigation.

The dams, LEADERSHIP learned, will also be critical to providing sources of drinking water for cattle and other animals particularly during the dry season in order to improve the well-being of animals.

Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed said this in Bauchi yesterday at Zaranda Hotel and Towers during the annual conference of the Animal Science Association of Nigeria.

The governor who was represented by his deputy, Senator Baba Tela, said the state government through relevant agencies and in partnership with national and international donors deployed various strategies to improve harvest especially as citizens of the state learned to live with the ever-worsening realities of extreme weather events which have debilitating effects on livelihoods of farmers in the state.

This year, several incidences of flooding across Bauchi State washed and submerged several hectares of farmlands destroying unquantifiable tonnes of crops, notably in the northern part of the state – the food basket of the state and other neighbouring states in the northeast sub-region.

The Emir of Muri, Alhaji Abbas Njidda Tafida, said poor management of natural resources contributes immensely to the woes of Nigeria’s agricultural development.

He demanded a change in attitude about how concerned authorities handle and treat naturally endowed resources that the country is blessed with for the overall maximum benefit of the country and its agrarian population.