Large Scale Irrigation in Northern Nigeria

Large-scale irrigation (LSI) has been an important feature of agricultural development investment in sub-Saharan Africa, yet LSI projects have a poor performance record. Enthusiasm for an investment in LSI was particularly strong in northern Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s and a number of areas were developed for irrigated smallholder production by Federal River Basin Development Authorities in Sokoto, Kano and Bomo States. However, there have been significant problems of escalating capital costs, delayed construction, low yields, erratic water supply and poor management, and adverse environmental and socio-economic impacts in floodplain environments. Experience with these problems in northern Nigeria is reviewed, and the persistence of LSI in Nigeria in spite of its poor performance is discussed in the context of political economy and the ideology of irrigation. This ideology, of irrigation as a modernizing 'technofix' solution to perceived development problems of environment and economy, served to legitimize continued investment in large-scale irrigation. Confidence in irrigation's potential contribution to Nigerian development still persists but the focus of attention has shifted to small-scale irrigation. Some implications of this new enthusiasm are discussed

Biology · Cartography · Geography · Ideology · Irrigation · Political science · Politics · Scale (ratio · Water resource management · Ecology · Environmental Science · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Water resources management and optimization

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