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

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 (sic)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).