An assessment of the roles of irrigation farming in the millennium development goals

Abstract

Irrigation farming has increased in Nigeria in the recent times. The possible reason for this is the increased 
awareness from the Fadama project jointly funded by World Bank, Federal Government and State Governments. 
This work was carried out to assess the income generating potential of irrigation farming which may reduce 
poverty and hunger and directly achieve an important aspect of the Millennium Development Goals. The study 
which was conducted between October 2005 and April 2006 covered towns and villages within the South 
Western region of Nigeria using data collected from a sample of four hundreds and fifty Fadama (irrigation) 
farmers. Structured questionnaires were administered to irrigation farmers in selected towns of two randomly 
selected Local Governments of two selected states (Oyo and Ogun States). The result of the study showed that 
irrigation farming is a profitable venture. Farmers realized an average net income (profit) of N
109, 750 from 
irrigation farming for the period. Furthermore, irrigation farming was found to be capable of alleviating poverty 
among farming households because they were able to live above US $1/day/person which is the threshold for 
poverty level. Hence irrigation farming can be used to achieve the MDG of reducing poverty and hunger. The 
Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression showed that farm size, years of irrigation experience, seed, labour and 
fertilizer were found to have significant effects on profit realized from irrigation farming. Major crops grown are 
vegetables (such as Okra, Chocorus olitorus, Telferia spp and Amaranthus).