By Wole Mosadomi

Professor Paul S. Marley, the Managing Director, Niger River Basin Development Authority,  has, in the past two years, been at the helms of affairs in the Authority, striving to key into  the transformational agenda of  President Goodluck Jonathan  in the agriculture sector.

In this interview, he speaks on the aggressive steps being taken by government in the sector especially on rice production.

You took over the mantle of leadership of this Authority about two years ago.  Were you satisfied with what you met on ground?

What I met on ground was not satisfactory. The River Basin, at that time, had suffered a lot based on policy changes i.e policy reversals. At one point, the River Basins participated very well in agricultural development in the country. At a point, they were asked to hands off agricultural production.

There were many changes in policy to the extent that at the time we came in, not only particular to this River Basin but all River Basins have suffered in policy changes in such a way that their roles in agricultural development and food security had suffered a lot, so what we met on ground was not satisfactory.

Was it in terms of funding or responsibilities?

In terms of funding and responsibilities, funding no doubt follows responsibility. If a responsibility is given to you, definitely funding for it will be provided. But here, we had a situation that responsibilities were not there. River Basins had been reduced to just provision of water through dams, boreholes provision, etc.

Are you now saying that with the present administration, you have got back your mandate?

Yes. This is one of the key things that happened with the re-orientation of the River Basins last year. With the Transformation Agenda of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, one of the clear responsibilities we were given is to play a role in agricultural development and that entails playing a key role in the food security situation of this country.  In other words, we have now been given the impetus to go back into agricultural development.

How are you going about actualizing the mandate since agriculture is top on the agenda of the present administration, particularly  irrigation farming?

The difference in the mandate we have with the mandate that was there before in agricultural production is that, this time around, we are not to delve direct into agricultural production. The first generation River Basins were into agricultural production including opening up of farms, poultries and they were doing it directly.

What we are now to do, in our own case, is to go into providing logistics for our farmers to do the direct production. So, we open up irrigation schemes. Like, right now in this River Basin, what we have done is to identify all our old existing irrigation schemes abandoned due to this policy reversals and this identification includes all our catchment areas which are Niger , Kaduna and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

How many of these irrigation schemes do you have in your territory?

In Niger alone, we have about 16 irrigation schemes. Many of them are medium to small scale irrigation schemes i.e. 100 hectares to about 250 hectares. Only two are into about 300 hectares. In Gidan Kawo, Niger State, it has a potential for about 800 hectares and we are only doing 400 hectares but we have recently expanded it to 600 hectares and then we have the Swashi Irrigation Dam which is very old and it has the potential for abou t2,900 hectares but it is not in use as at now.

What of in Kaduna?

Most of the schemes we have in Kaduna have been taken over by the state government. We just have the Igabi Irrigation Scheme that is functional now. However, we are developing a new one in the area which, when completed, will give us about 250 hectares. In the FCT, we have the Gada Biu Irrigation Scheme coming up. It will cover about 40 hectares of irrigation infrastructure from the scratch and we also hope to get an adjacent 100 hectares to add to this so as to upgrade it to about 150 hectares.

Apart from your own territory, with the renewed mandate for River Basins across the country, do you think we are getting close to the stoppage of importation of food especially rice into the country?

Yes. We have the capacity to produce and export rice. In fact, the Asian countries that we import rice from had been importing rice from Nigeria . This shows the painful act of lack of agricultural development in this country because we have the land, human resources and they are lying waste.

But we have been hearing that from the past administrations and things are yet to change for the better. They knew all these things; what do you think we  should do to actualize this dream of producing rice?

We need the political will and orientation. The policy makers need to know that we need to have that political will and this is a goal and we need to achieve it.

And to the implementers, we need to realize that this is a policy and we should implement it accordingly with appropriate funding. The third group of people are the Nigerians themselves who are the farmers who need to be encouraged. One of the problems is that many of the farmers will produce and don’t get the market to sell and these  people are living from produce to mouth.

If they produce and unable to get market, it is a problem. Today, when Nigerians go to the market to buy rice and when you introduce them to local rice, they shy away as if it is poison. Everybody wants imported rice even in the rural areas where they plant rice. It shows that we need to be re-orientated because even the taste of the local people has  changed.

What impact will the ban on importation of rice have on our local produce?

This ban is a very good way forward.

But can we maintain this due to frequent policy changes of government.

We can maintain it if we stop importation and raise our production. Once you raise importation and there are markets available, that is all. We still need to march this bold step with the establishment of rice mills because what the local rice needs is the rice mills to separate the rice from stones.

It is the same rice we are spending billions of naira on and ours is even better because here, it is fresh because within the one year circle, we would have consumed the rice. Some of the rice we import has stayed in stores for more than four years and must has lost its nutritional value. So I think it is a very good policy because that will ginger us to producing our own rice locally but I pray that our entrepreneurs will open more rice mills.

Is there any incentive for the farmers to boost their production in order to meet up the anticipated situation?

Subsidized fertilizers, free seeds and other incentives are good measures for the farmers. At othe River Basin level, we give them imputs at very subsidized rates, sell our fertilizers at subsidized rates and sell our water pumps for irrigation at subsidized rates to boost their production. Recently, we increased our tractor hiring at subsidized rates too.

Another mandate of River Basins is the provision of potable water to the people.  It is however sad that the Kagara Dam started over 30 years ago is far from being completed. What is the real problem and any hope on this?

The Kagara Dam has become jinxed if I may put it that way. It is sad for it to remain uncompleted. After all, it is not the biggest Dam being built in this country and so there is no reason why it should not be completed. The project has suffered from contractual problems.

So many contractors have been engaged but have abandoned site based on fractures on contractual terms. The project is supposed to be a dam of about I million gallons per day water treatment plant. You know that a dam designed over 30 years ago must have become obsolete and so our main focus now is that the section of the dam be completed and we need about N8b to get it done.

The River Basin does not have such money. What we have managed to do is to transfer the project to our mother ministry but the budget for this year again does not capture the project and this is why the contractor has not moved to site.

This new intention does not in any way include the 1-million gallon water treatment plant because the design and equipment must have been obsolete but if the state government wants to partner as part of our discussion with the state government in Abuja some weeks ago, they can come in and demand for their refund later.

One of the major problems we have in this country is lack of provision of potable water for the populace. What are the problems militating against water production with all the rivers, streams e.t.c in this country?

It is not that we cannot produce water; we can, but many of the water infrastructure require operation maintenance and, in many cases, community participation in the maintenance of these projects is nil. Once these infrastructure break down, you find a situation where everybody deserts such projects.

For example, most people in our small communities and even in big towns pass by any broken down hand pump as if nothing has happened and such a borehole serving them remains like that for years. If we can improve on our maintenance culture and if communities can also wake up to their responsibilities, then we will go a long way in reducing scarcity of water in this country.

What are some of the projects you can point to as your modest achievements since you took over about two years ago?

We have so far completed the Ageie – Lapai Dam and the office complex of the project and awaiting commissioning. Also, we have expanded the Tungan Kawo Dam from 400 to 600 hectares, increased the tractor hiring scheme from about four tractors in the past to about 32 tractors now spread all over our project offices here in Niger, Kaduna and FCT.

We have also completed about 12 minor irrigation schemes in Kaduna State as source of water and irrigation channels provider. We have also established a fishery section and have a functional poultry all opened to the public to patronize. Above all, we have sponsored many of our staff to in-house and even outside the countries for courses which for many years had been stopped.

All these steps are taken at our own level here to actualize the dream of the present administration of President Goodluck Jonathan towards resuscitating the agricultural sector and thereby boosting food production for both our consumption and even for export which the country is aiming at achieving in the nearest future.