Kogi govt. Vows to promote food security, irrigation farming, power generation

By, Mark Akudu, Kogi 

Kogi state government has, in a bid to ensure food security, reassured that dams across the State will be effectively utilized for irrigations farming and power generation. 

The Commissioner for Water resources Yahaya Danladi Farouk gave the assurance on Monday  while inspecting the  facilities of Omi Kampe dam as part of the State Government commitment to the world bank supported project, Sustainable Power Irrigation in Nigeria, (SPIN).

He noted that the SPIN project is aimed at utilizing the dam for farming and Omi Kampe dam has satisfied the world bank criterias.

According to him, “This dam is a federal government operated dam under the lower Niger basin development authority designed purposely for irrigation. Governor Ododo promised the people of Kogi State that agriculture and food security remains one of the priorities of his administration.

“It covers all the dams owned and operated by both the Federal and State Government. Omi Kampe Dam has satisfied that criteria. We are also working on others in the East and Central Senatorial District of Kogi State”.

The Commissioner, who noted that the project is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2025 said “What we are doing here is the baseline data collection for the commencement of the project in which Kogi State under Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo is almost at 90 percent.

” The State Government is fully committed to pay the counterpart fund which is above 700 Million because we have more of the dams in the State to cater for. We have model one and model two. This is under model one.

The Commissioner, who,  during the tour with officials from the Kogi State ministry of agriculture also inspected the dam spillway, and the 250meter embarkment of the dam.

On his part, the Team lead, Bello Garba of World Bank/Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation Inspection Team on SPIN Project 

noted that the project is about 15 kilometers, adding that, 3.5kilometer has concrete lining and 12.5 kilometers without concrete lining.

“The dam discharges water into the canal by gravity.  For it to achieve this purpose, it will need concrete lining. The concrete will flow in that direction in different levels. We only concreted 3.5 kilometers. Definitely, the other side will be silted.

In their separate remarks, some farmers in the community who identified themselves as Olatokunbo Okunlaja and Onilede Opeyemi both identified water distribution as one of the challenges farmers are facing in growing their crops.

“We are also facing a dry spell because the Dam could not serve the people farming in some areas. When water is available, we can farm throughout the season. Where we are farming, the canal is not reaching there.

“The first three Kilometer that has been lined is just a channel to the rest area.The rest that has not been lined are the main area in which we farm. When there is enough water, we can farm rice thrice or four times per annum” he stated.