PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF SELECTED IRRIGATION SCHEMES IN NIGER STATE USING COMPARATIVE INDICATORS

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the performance of selected irrigation Scheme in Niger State using various indicators such as output per unit cropped area and water consumed, related to production with land and water, relative irrigation supply (RIS) related to water supply from the system with crop water demand and financial self-sufficiency (FSS) related with collection of fees from water users in the command area. In this study, the performance indicators for the schemes were determined for year 2013-17. The analysis of agricultural performance indicators showed that the production value of different crops grown in command area were fluctuating upwards and downwards signifying inconsistency in management of the schemes. The analysis of water use indicators showed that not all water released from the reservoir get to the command area due to damage of the distribution canals and some of the canals have been overgrown by weeds thereby making the canal capacity insufficient to meet the peak consumptive requirement. The analysis of economic or financial indicators showed that the scheme had a serious problem about the collection of water fees i.e. revenue or irrigation charges collected from scheme were less than that of total operation and maintenance expenditures.