Small-scale irrigation initiatives in Nigeria: the problems of equity and sustainability

Abstract

Because of the repeated under-performance of large-scale irrigation over the last 20–30 years it is now widely perceived as having failed to reduce food deficits or significantly increase agricultural productivity in Africa. Many aid donors and state agencies, particularly in Nigeria, have become increasingly involved in informal small-scale irrigation and there has thus been rapid technical change in the methods used to lift groundwater. Using data from recent research undertaken in northern Nigeria, the question is posed as to whether the assumptions about the sustainability of technically improved small-scale irrigation have any basis in fact. It is shown that technical sustainability problems have already arisen in northern Nigeria and that there could be serious ecological and pedological problems in the future. It is also argued that because of its inherent inequity, small-scale irrigation is not suitable for effecting broad-based agricultural and/or rural development. With new small-scale irrigation technology being introduced and promoted by forces acting upon, but outside, the traditional agricultural sector, it should not be presumed that the growth so induced will be either organic or sustainable in the longer term.