President Bola Tinubu on Monday declared a national emergency on food security, urging expanded irrigation infrastructure and participatory water resource management nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinubu made the declaration while opening the 6th African Regional Conference on Irrigation and Drainage in Abuja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urged African nations to adopt innovative strategies in addressing the continent\u2019s irrigation and water management challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described the conference theme, \u201cTackling Irrigation Development and Water Management Crisis in Africa\u201d, as a clarion call to action for sustainable agriculture and economic resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfrica continues to face major challenges in unlocking its irrigation potential due to inadequate infrastructure, financial constraints, climate change, and governance issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis conference offers a vital platform for us to collectively chart a path forward\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinubu stated that the country had more than 3.1 million hectares of irrigable land located around key river basins such as the Niger and Benue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his remarks, the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, said the government had completed several landmark initiatives under the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He announced that its successor, the Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria (SPIN) project, would address outstanding gaps while optimising the economic value of water resources to support food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the TRIMING project winding down, Nigeria is poised to begin implementation of the SPIN project in partnership with the World Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis initiative will consolidate on the successes of TRIMING and expand our irrigation potential,\u201d Utsev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the minister, the TRIMING project, which spanned more than seven years, delivered notable achievements, including the completion of the Dadin-Kowa and Bakolori irrigation schemes and 90 per cent completion of the Middle Rima Valley irrigation project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also supported ongoing interventions in Ondo, Kwara, Benue, Kebbi, Edo, Adamawa, and Oyo States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also noted that the project established Water Users Associations (WUAs), farmer management centres, and supported market linkages for key value chains such as rice and tomato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister further revealed that River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) had developed more than 153,000 hectares of irrigable land and were being partially commercialised to attract private sector investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also referenced the 2025 Flood Outlook and Risk Management Strategy, aimed at minimising flood-related impacts on agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis conference is a platform for knowledge exchange, innovation, and collective commitment to resolving Africa\u2019s pressing irrigation and water management issues,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Bola Tinubu on Monday declared a national emergency on food security, urging expanded irrigation infrastructure and participatory water resource management nationwide. Tinubu made the declaration while opening the 6th African Regional Conference on Irrigation and Drainage in Abuja. He was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume. He …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[1893,1892,1891,1895,1894,143],"class_list":["post-3365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-expanded-irrigation-infrastructure","tag-food-security","tag-national-emergency","tag-nationwide","tag-participatory-water-resource-management","tag-president-bola-tinubu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3367,"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3365\/revisions\/3367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treasurenaija.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}