Water Transfer Methods in Response to water demand for agricultural practice at Chanchaga River and Tagwai Dam in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

Water remains the determinate factor in intensifying agricultural and non agricultural activities. Considerable investment in water transfer will improve availability of water for irrigation. Random selection method was used to administer questionnaires to the farmers on the irrigation scheme of Chanchaga River and other activities carried out in the area. Some of these questionnaires were also distributed to the farmers along the major course of the Tagwai dam. Farmers who have their farmlands upstream the Tagwai dam were observed as 77.05%, the midstream had a population 6.89% farmers while at the downstream, was 16.06%. A total of 315 copies of structured questionnaire were distributed to the respondents. It was observed that the water transfer for Agricultural (irrigation) purposes is relatively not enough. Consequently, it is recommended that government should make water available for farmers to have access at all time when needed for bountiful crop yield