From Agaju Madugba, Katsina
Katsina State government has revived its irrigation schemes to enable displaced farmers in some parts of the state continue their work without molestation.
A number of farmers and entire communities, especially from the frontline areas with links to the Rugu forest have continued to abandon their ancestral homes due to murderous activities of bandits and terrorists operating in the state.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Aminu Waziri, said: “We have 32 irrigation schemes across the state and we have revived them to the extent that one irrigation scheme alone is capable of sustaining up to 10 communities, farming and earning a living.”
Waziri who spoke at a media parley organised by the Katsina Media Forum, also explained government’s decision to suspend the annual distribution of fertilisers to farmers arguing that unscrupulous politicians exploited it to the detriment of genuine farmers.
He said the government equally embarked on a project of desilting the canals and revive the dams too as further measures to accommodate displaced farmers, while government distributes improved seedlings to farmers at 50 per cent discount of the actual costs.
“We have realised that dry season farming is one of the most important aspects in the agriculture sector in supporting activities of farming communities. We decided to look for alternative ways by boosting our irrigation schemes so that the conventional farmers move to areas with enough irrigated land for them to farm. So, farmers who were displaced from their communities have been relocated to the irrigation schemes across the state.”
Waziri said no fewer than 400 households were currently engaged in the irrigation scheme at Malumfashi-Dayi-Kano road irrigation scheme.
He said the government had also revived the irrigation canals and desilted the dams.
“Those currently enjoying facilities at the irrigation sites are not necessarily from the communities in the areas. They come from some other communities where they had challenges because of activities of bandits.”