Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy

Hiroyuki Takeshima and Hyacinth Edeh, 2017. Constraints for small-scale private irrigation systems in the North Central zone of Nigeria: Insights from a typology analysis and a case study. Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Paper 85. East Lansing: Michigan State University.

ABSTRACT
Agricultural transformation has been slow in Nigeria despite relatively fast growth in the non-agricultural sector of the economy. The limited contributions of irrigation in the agricultural sector have been considered to be one of the causes of slow agricultural transformation in Nigeria. Irrigation is used in both public-sector and private-sector irrigation schemes. Information is, however, often limited regarding small-scale private irrigation systems and their expansion potential and constraints, as compared to information on public irrigation schemes. This paper aims to provide various qualitative indicators which can shed light on irrigation system diversity and its recent evolution in Nigeria, as well as key economic characteristics of a selected private irrigation system as a case study.

Altogether, private irrigation systems will likely need to be expanded if overall irrigation areas in Nigeria are to grow substantially. However, relatively more intensive irrigators have declined recently in Nigeria as compared to less intensive ones, thus, potentially limiting the role of irrigation in agricultural transformation. Raising the competitiveness of private irrigation systems may require significant reductions in production costs through efforts to increase overall productivity. This includes reducing the costs of labor, which accounts for the majority of production costs in private irrigation systems, rather than simply reducing the costs of non-labor material inputs like fertilizer, seeds, and pumps through subsidies, as has conventionally been done.