Underperformance of Nigerian irrigation systems

Despite huge public investment in large‐scale irrigation projects in Nigeria, they have yet to yield the desired results. About 76% of capital expenditure on agriculture in the 1981 Federal budget went to this sector, yet only 3.7% of the anticipated area of 1.4 million ha is currently under control irrigation. The largest of these schemes, the South Chad Irrigation Project, has suffered from serious capacity underutilization, crop yields have been extremely low, risk and uncertainty have been high, and water conveyance and water use efficiencies have been among the lowest in the world. This paper identifies and discusses the fundamental causes of this underperformance, and suggests remedies. Utilizing remote sensing (NASA/Landsat and AVHR satellite) images of Lake Chad from 1965 to 1986, it is argued that the scheme may not be technically feasible owing to its vulnerability to drought and the shrinking of Lake Chad.