China, FAO to help build irrigation system

Chinese water experts are to build a national irrigation system for Nigeria with support from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Minister for Agriculture Adamu Bello, said on Wednesday. The minister, who was addressing reporters at the end of the weekly cabinet meeting, said a team of 500 Chinese experts would arrive in October and start building 3,000 earth dams in the country’s 774 local government councils. The new irrigation system is expected to end Nigeria’s dependence on rain-fed griculture. The project - expected to cost US $20 million - is to be completed by 2006. The minister said the Chinese government had agreed to bear the transportation costs of the water experts while the FAO would finance the technical team due to arrive this month. "Within the next three or four years, it is hoped that about 10 percent of our agricultural production will be through irrigation," Bello said. Under the project cooperation agreement, four Nigerian trainees will be attached to each Chinese expert. At least 10,000 Nigerians should have been trained to manage the earth dams by the end of the project, the minister said.