FCT Loses N1bn for Neglecting New Irrigation Technology

Farmers in the FCT are losing about N1billion annually, following their non- adoption of wash bore technology in dry season farming.

The FCT Director Agricultural Development Project (ADP) Dr Mike Uwaizie, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Gwagwalada.

He said the amount was the "minimum estimated gains of farmers who embraced irrigation using wash-bore technology."

"The wash-bore technology is the drilling of under ground water between one and seven metres to extract water, using water pump for irrigation farming," he said.

He said that experts revealed that the use of wash-bore was the best technology which farmers could use to produce more food crops during dry season.

Uwaizie regretted that FCT farmers had never accorded any importance to irrigation which could help to sustain increased production throughout the year.

"If you multiply N100 million estimated profit from maize and food stuff production by 10,000 farmers who observed two seasons farming, is the profit and the loss in the business," he said.

According to him, the days when farmers in FCT will rely on subsistence farming as the only way of generating income for the family were over.

"FCT is among the first major agricultural producing areas in the country, we must evolve embrace mechanized farming system to feed the community and the nation," he said.