Water harvesting is an age long tradition that has been implemented and still practiced by local farmers especially in the desert prone areas, but that is usually not sufficient because of the changing climatic conditions.
Most farmers now rely more on local dams and government water storage facilities to help cope with the water scarcity. This is because; these local farmers can’t afford to build their own storage facilities to cope with the water needs of their farms. Also it leads to over population around the water storage sites which could pose a potential threat of land grabbing, conflicts resulting in the depletion of the land resource used for production.
The water storages also come with the high cost of purchase of water pumping machines and water hose covering long distance to reach the farm lands; that some of these local farmers can’t afford.
To control water use because of the water need of vegetable, local farmers use the traditional ridging irrigation system throughout the year for crop production to ensure vegetable supplies.
On the flip side, there is the competition for the stored water especially in the outer fringes of northern Nigeria where rainfall is not insufficient to meet their agricultural needs therefore having herders and farmers competing for the little water stored to provide water their animals by the nomadic Fulani herders and the local farmers.
There is currently farmers/herders in part of Nigeria leading to hunger, malnutrition, killings, and forced displacement due to the competition for the limited land and water resources in the areas affected.
Г-н John Ede