Nnamdi Azikiwe University To Omo Irrigation Project Farm

Faculty of Agriculture Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka In Anambra State went on an excursion at

lower Anambra Irrigation Project (LAIP).

 

By Amaka.

The students were welcomed by all the laip staffs on their arival and mr cn ngene one of the staff member introduced the project to them.,he said "what we do here is rice cropping".

It started in obasanjo's regime .The land is measured a total of 3,850 hectars of land which is divided into 4 zones-Northwest,Northeast,Southwest and Southeast.

They have different sections which include: the main civil engineering works, pumping station, irrigation canals, drainage canals and road networks.

 Mr Ngene said that the project also organise programmes for farmers .He futher stated that the vision is to  be able to produce a large qauntity of rice that can be able to feed the whole Africa.

The variety of rice found there is the IR14/16 that was introduced by japanese, Faro44 that was introduced in 1999 when the yield of IR14/16 was declining.The rice mill yields 3.3 tonnes per hour.

After the introduction of the project ,Mr Friday in the field shows the student the planted rice in the field with the parts and also the irrigation canals and tractors used in the farm.

 He further said that the planting method is by broadcasting.The challenges they ecounter in the field is lack of machinery saying that the farmers are undergoing hard labour because they make use of manual labour for a large area of land.

 He also said that another problem they encounter is the climate change that introduces new pest to the farm and lack of dams with constant electricity.

Therefore Mr Friday urges the federal government to put interest in the programme so as to increase the efficiency of the farmers in production, and also for contant electricity and machineries.