Buhari declares revolution in agriculture

President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that Nigeria’s agricultural revolution is real and on course and assured Nigerians that government will sustain the positive momentum in the sector by implementing the right policies.

He gave the assurance an event to mark the commencement of the rehabilitation and expansion of the 6,000-hectare Hadejia Valley irrigation project in Jigawa.

Buhari, who is in the state on a two-day working visit, promised that government would provide the needed financial resources to prosecute people’s oriented projects.

He was happy that the economic diversification and inclusive growth programmes of the government were already yielding positive results, particularly in key food-producing states.

The President further applauded the World Bank’s assistance to the project, which when completed would increase water availability for all-season farming in Jigawa and beyond.

On his part, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said works on the first phase of the project which started in the early eighties during the administration of President Shehu Shagari and received some funding under the Petroleum Special Trust Fund had suffered frequent abandonment due to lack of funds.

Adamu, however, revealed that with some funds allocated under the US$495 million World Bank-assisted Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) project in five different irrigation locations in the country, the project would be completed by 2021.

“By the time the project is finished in three years, there would be about 6,000 hectares of farmland and the Jigawa State Government also plans to key into the project that will benefit over 25,000 farmers,” the Minister explained.

Buhari had earlier inaugurated the 42-kilometre Tasheguwa-Guri Road and the 32-kilometre Abunabo-Kadira-Guri road constructed by the state government .

He also inaugurated the 250,000 solar-powered water supply scheme in the state.