Nigeria, Sahel Nations Need $6bn To Bridge Irrigation Funding Gap – FAO

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations connected Wednesday underlined the urgent request to adjacent a $6 cardinal backing shortfall to grow irrigation crossed West Africa and the Sahel region.

FAO Subregional Coordinator for West Africa and acting typical for Senegal, Bintia Stephen-Tchicaya who stated this astatine the Hand-in-Hand Sub-Regional Investment Forum successful Abuja, called for solidarity and backing partnership.

According to her, 10 Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, on with determination organisations the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control successful the Sahel (CILSS) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) person developed five-year irrigation concern plans targeting 1.2 cardinal hectares.

These plans, she said, required astir $8 cardinal with lone $2 cardinal already committed.

“Irrigation is not conscionable a method solution; it is simply a strategical enabler it enhances productivity, builds resilience against clime change, and empowers communities, countries are truthful seeking partnerships with assets partners to assistance span the $6 cardinal gap,” Stephen-Tchicaya explained.

“In addition, marketplace linkages and worth concatenation improvement are being factored successful to guarantee reliable outlets for nutrient from irrigated areas.

“FAO has outstanding acquisition successful supporting irrigation globally and successful the sub-region, by organising this forum, FAO reaffirmed its committedness to supporting irrigation successful the sub-region and calls for your collaboration successful bid to scope results connected a bigger scale.

“Partnerships are the cornerstone of success, FAO and governments unsocial cannot bash it, we request the backstage sector, fiscal institutions, probe bodies and civilian nine to co-invest, co-design, and co-implement solutions”, she added.

FAO typical successful Nigeria and to ECOWAS, Dr Hussein Gadain outlined 3 strategical pillars for action, including sustainable onshore and h2o management, translation of agri-food accumulation systems and stronger probe and innovation capacity.

He besides urged governments to enactment agriculture astatine the centre of their improvement agendas.

“Your enactment is captious and catalytic, simplify governmental processes for investors and guarantee that your nationalist policies make an enabling situation for climate-smart, inclusive businesses”, Gadain said.

Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari urged governments to supply enabling policies, onshore reforms, and infrastructure to pull backstage capital.

He noted irrigation arsenic the captious enabler that tin alteration subsistence farming into a thriving, business-oriented enterprise, saying, “Without h2o security, determination tin beryllium nary nutrient security.”

He identified that the relation of the gathering arsenic the launchpad for a caller section of concern successful h2o for agriculture portion charging the backstage assemblage to “look astatine the Sahel, not arsenic a portion of risk, but arsenic the adjacent frontier of opportunity.”