Article Citation: Suleiman Aminu, Adamu Ibrahim, Hassan Bello, A. M. Mshelia (2019). The Influence of Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) Educational Programme on Conflict Resolution among Farmers in North-West, Nigeria. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2. ISSN 0794-9316
INFLUENCE
OF TRANSFORMING IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA (TRIMING) EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION AMONG FARMERS
IN NORTH-WEST, NIGERIA
By
Suleiman
Aminu, Adamu Ibrahim, Hassan Bello, A. M. Mshelia
Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine the impact of TRIMING
Educational Programme on Conflict Resolution among irrigation farmers in the
North-West, Nigeria. Results indicated among others that (1) TRIMING
educational programme has significant influence on conflict resolution among
irrigation farmers due to water sharing in the North-West, Nigeria; and (2)
TRIMING educational programme has significant influence on conflict resolution
among irrigation farmers due to land encroachment in the North-West, Nigeria.
It was concluded that, TRIMING educational programme is very effective in
resolving conflict between different water users within the irrigation areas.
The paper recommends among others that River Basin Development Authorities and
scheme management should ensure that, farmers design and adhere to irrigation
scheduling calendar during the growing season. This will help avoid conflict
between the upstream and the downstream farmers.
Introduction
Increasing rate of conflict among irrigation farmers and
between farmers and other water users especially in the North-Western part of
Nigeria is becoming worrisome. Conflict among farmers usually arises due to
water sharing or land disputes such as farm encroachment or farm stealing.
Conflict also occurs due to destruction of crops by pastoralists or blocking of
canals and drains by fishermen. These have impacted negatively on efficient
water management, efficient operation and maintenance of irrigation facilities,
proper crop planning, and crop productivity with the resultant negative effect
on country’s effort to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. Various
forms of conflicts break out among farmers and between farmers and other stakeholders
within the irrigation projects with varying degrees of damages on farmers,
crops, animals, and irrigation infrastructures (Gbehe, 2007: 56).
Irrigation areas have long become a “war zone” between
different water users resulting in various losses thereby hindering the
achievement of the objectives which the irrigation schemes were established to
achieve. These include; increasing the size of productive land, increasing the
number of cultivated crops in an area, increasing the income and standard of living
of the irrigation farmers and maximum contribution to country’s food security
(Bello, 2013). There are many reasons why conflict persists within the
irrigation schemes, including lack of adequate WUA institutions, inadequate
administrative capacity, lack of transparency, ambiguous jurisdictions,
overlapping functions, fragmented institutional structures, and lack of
necessary infrastructure which led to introduction of TRIMING project. This
study was therefore carried out to determine the influence of TRIMING
educational programme on conflict resolution among irrigation farmers in
North-West, Nigeria.
The main objective of this study is to determine the
Influence of TRIMING Educational Programme on Conflict Resolution and Crop
Production among Irrigation Farmers in North-West, Nigeria. Specifically, the
study intends to:
- ascertain the influence of
TRIMING Educational Programme on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to water sharing in North-West, Nigeria.
- establish the influence of
TRIMING Educational Programme on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to land encroachment in North-West, Nigeria.
In line with each specific objective, the following research
questions were raised and were answered:
- What is the influence of
TRIMING Educational Programme on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to water sharing in North-West, Nigeria?
- What is the influence of
TRIMING Educational Programme on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to land encroachment in North-West, Nigeria?
In line with the research questions, the following null
hypotheses were formulated and were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
HO1: TRIMING Educational
Programme has no significant influence on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to water sharing in the North-West, Nigeria
HO2: TRIMING Educational
Programme has no significant influence on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to land encroachment in the North-West, Nigeria
Conceptual Discussion
The contribution of irrigation to the economic growth of
Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. Irrigation which is the application of
controlled amounts of water to plants at needed intervals has long been considered essential to the
sustainable growth of Nigeria. Irrigation plays a significant role in
enhancing the country’s economy by allowing the production of a diverse array
of crops that cannot be grown under rain fed conditions, which allows producers
to take advantage of a wider range of national and international markets
(Abubakar & Kuper, 2003: 37). Irrigation has increased the amount of land
under cultivation, and the yields on existing cropland. It has also allowed
double cropping, and has decreased the uncertainty of water supplied by
rainfall. Cosmas, Chukwuemeka, Okala and Godwin (2010: 56) observed that the
overall unreliability and inconsistency in the temporal and spatial
distribution coupled with inadequacy of the rainfall, recurrent droughts and
rapid population growth have all combined to make irrigation an essential
factor in the food security and economic growth in Nigeria.
Consequently, irrigation farming
has now been given serious attention by all manner of people seeking to satisfy
different needs within the irrigation area. This has resulted in a fierce
competition among irrigation stakeholders for various irrigation resources.
These competitions were triggered by increasing demand for irrigation resources
(land, water and green pasture) which are also very scarce (Abbas, 2009: 24).
Farmers compete among themselves for irrigation water and land for cultivation;
with pastoralist for irrigable land where the farmers need the land for growing
crops while the pastoralist need the same land for grazing animals and with
fishermen for irrigation water. These various form of competition resulted to
conflicts within the irrigation areas.
Conflict simply means to come into collision or
disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition, discord of
action, feeling, or effect; antagonism or opposition as of interests or
principles. It is a clash between diametrically opposing forces (Adekunle &
Adisa, 2010: 45). It is, also, a state of non-agreement between persons that
could end up in violence. In general, conflict is a negation to harmonious
co-existence of people. Bijani and Hayati (2015: 61) acknowledged that, water conflict is considered as one of the
major challenges in agricultural water management. According to Bishnu (2010: 24),
conflict within the irrigation area can be caused by several factors and
different pattern of conflict erupt within the irrigation area among irrigation
farmers and between farmers and other water users such as pastoralists and
fishermen. Conflicts arise from human relations in two principle ways: first,
individuals or groups of individuals have different values, needs and
interests; and, second, most resources are not available in unlimited
quantities and so access to them must be controlled and fought for (Ifatimehin,
2008: 109). The end product of conflict within the irrigation area is the
various degrees of damage to farmers, pastoralists, fishermen, crops, animals
and irrigation facilities. It can lead to serious injury or even loss of lives
in the parts of the famers, pastoralist and fishermen. It can also cause
destruction of crops, vandalism of irrigation facilities and destruction of
animals as some aggrieved farmers can intoxicate the animals leading to death.
In an effort to diversify the economy and create significant
welfare improvements, sustainable growth, peaceful coexistence, higher output
as well as raising incomes for the agricultural labour force the Federal
Government of Nigeria in collaboration with the World Bank introduced a project
called Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING). The philosophy
of the Project is to improve access to irrigation and drainage services and to
strengthen institutional arrangements for integrated water resources management
and agriculture service delivery in selected large-scale public schemes in
Northern Nigeria. TRIMING project was design to ensure active participation by
farmers in the management and maintenance of irrigation facilities, ensure
sustainable irrigation, increased crop production and better livelihood for
irrigation farmers.
The Project was designed to improve irrigation on 50,000 ha,
develop an additional 23,000 ha of irrigated land (an 85 percent increase), for
more than 140,000 farmers (World Bank, 2014: 15). TRIMING Project is aimed at promoting reforms in the management
of irrigation schemes and increasing agricultural productivity through the
adoption of improved practices by irrigation farmers and placing a strong
emphasis on innovative approaches to production and conflict resolution and on
strengthening of systems of Water Users Associations (WUAs) saddled with such
responsibilities. It also placed emphasis on strengthening water-related
institutions such as WUAs, Scheme management and River Basin Development Authorities
(World Bank, 2014: 12).The TRIMING Project has the potential to substantially
increase crop production, incomes and employment opportunities as well as
reducing conflict between major stakeholders by changing the approach by which
public irrigation schemes operate.
TRIMING educational programmes are those activities embedded
in components number 3 and 4 of the project. These components aimed at
educating farmers on the negative effects of conflict on productivity and how
to resolve it themselves when it occurs as well as training them on efficient
ways of water resource management and improve agricultural practices for better
productivity and improved standard of living. Component 3 aimed at enhancing
agricultural productivity through the adoption of new farming techniques and
use of improved farm inputs as well as value chain development for increased
profitability. Components 4 aimed at institutional development of water users
and capacity building of both water users and scheme management (World Bank,
2014: 12).
TRIMING Project therefore helps to achieve lasting solution
to poor operation, maintenance and management of irrigation facilities,
persistent conflict among irrigation farmers and between farmers and other
water users and to achieve high productivity through the adoption of improved
farming techniques (FRN, 2013).
Research Methodology
The research design adopted for this study was descriptive
survey design. Descriptive research
design is a design that helps researcher to depict the
participants in an accurate way (Bernard & Bernard, 2012). Knussan (2014)
opined that, descriptive survey design is used when the researcher is
interested in collecting opinions of the respondents using questionnaire
regarding a given situation or relationship. The population of the study
comprised of all the registered 49,720 irrigation farmers in four (4)
irrigation schemes that benefited from TRIMING intervention in the North-West,
Nigeria in 2013. These are the farmers who were mobilized into Water User
Association (WUAs) by TRIMING in order to guide their activities. The Research
Advisor’s sample determination table (2006) recommended that, a sample of 381
is adequate for a population of 50,000 respondents at 95% confidence interval
and 5.0% margin of error, to enable the researcher have representativeness the
sample was increased to 500 respondents using proportional sampling technique
of 0.1.
The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire of 4-points rating
scale adapted from Marcus (2003) with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of
0.86 which showed that, the instrument was reliable.
In data analysis, mean and standard deviation were used to
answer research questions. In answering the research questions, strongly agree
and agree were considered as agree while disagree and strongly disagree were
considered as disagree. In the analysis any item with a mean score of 2.5 and
above (≥2.5) was considered agreed while any item with a mean score of less
than 2.5 (2.5<) was considered disagreed. All the Null hypotheses were
tested using regression analysis with SPSS version 23.0. In the test of null
hypotheses, where the p- value was equal or less than the alpha value of 0.05 (P≤α)
the null hypothesis was rejected and on the other hand where the p-value was greater
than the alpha value of 0.05 (P>α) the null hypothesis was retained.
Findings and Analysis
Research Question One
What is the influence of TRIMING Educational Programme on
conflict resolution among irrigation farmers due to water sharing in
North-West, Nigeria?
Table
1: influence of TEP on CR among irrigation farmers due to water sharing
|
SN |
Item |
|
S.D |
Dec |
|
1 |
TRIMING has increased dam safety and
increased the volume of water released for irrigation hence reducing water
conflict |
3.01 |
0.564 |
Agreed |
|
2 |
TRIMING has strengthened the
institutional capacity of water users in dealing with any form of conflict
due to water sharing |
2.82 |
0.469 |
Agreed |
|
3 |
TRIMING has trained farmers on
efficient water management, thereby reducing competition for access to
irrigation water |
2.90 |
0.460 |
Agreed |
|
4 |
TRIMING has taught farmers the
disadvantages of water wastage hence seriously reduced water shortage and
conflict |
3.04 |
0.429 |
Agreed |
|
5 |
TRIMING has enlightened farmers on
the negative consequences of conflict so, no farmer wants to involve in any
form of conflict |
3.24 |
0.378 |
Agreed |
|
6 |
TRIMING has introduced effective
irrigation scheduling method, that helped to reduce conflict due to water
sharing |
2.90 |
0.616 |
Agreed |
|
7 |
TRIMING has taught farmers on
operation and maintenance of irrigation facilities hence maintained carrying
capacity and maximum supply of irrigation water to reduce conflict |
3.04 |
0.463 |
Agreed |
|
8 |
Farmers’ attitude of vandalizing
irrigation facilities has been changed by TRIMING training hence, ensure
efficient supply of water to all farms |
2.74 |
0.429 |
Agreed |
|
9 |
Farmers’ associations have been strengthened
financially by TRIMING to effectively maintain irrigation facilities for
sustainable supply of irrigation water |
2.97 |
0.712 |
Agreed |
|
10 |
TRIMING has trained farmers to work
cooperatively in dealing with any form of physical, financial or behavioural
problem within the irrigation area |
3.05 |
0.515 |
Agreed |
|
11 |
Farmers have been trained on conflict
management skills and so can handle any form of conflict within the
irrigation area |
2.80 |
0.741 |
Agreed |
|
12 |
Formulation of laws guiding the use
of irrigation water by TRIMING has reduced conflict due to water sharing |
3.03 |
0.656 |
Agreed |
|
13 |
Stricter punishment for defaulters of
water use laws has reduced conflict between irrigation farmers due to water
sharing |
2.95 |
0.902 |
Agreed |
|
|
Grand Mean |
3.61 |
0.564 |
|
Source: Field work 2019
The results of 13 items used to answer research question one
is presented in Table 1. From the result, the mean score of the items ranges
from 3.69 to 2.51. The obtained mean scores were found to be greater than 2.5
index score for agree. This is also applicable to the grand mean score of 3.61
and standard deviation value of 0.564. The obtained grant mean (3.61>2.50)
suggested that TRIMING Educational Programme has influence on conflict
resolution among irrigation farmers due to water sharing in North-West,
Nigeria.
Research Question Two
What is the Influence of TRIMING Educational Programme on
conflict resolution among irrigation farmers due to land encroachment in
North-West, Nigeria?
Table
2: Influence of TEP on CR among irrigation farmers due to land encroachment
|
SN |
Item |
Mean |
S.D |
Dec |
|
14 |
GPS mapping introduced by TRIMING has
eliminated land encroachment among farmers |
3.27 |
0.821 |
Agreed |
|
15 |
TRIMING has trained farmers the best
way of demarcating their farm, hence reduced conflict due to land
encroachment |
3.26 |
0.809 |
Agreed |
|
16 |
Farmers’ unions have been
strengthened by TRIMING to resolve any conflict among farmers due to land
encroachment |
3.37 |
0.971 |
Agreed |
|
17 |
Names, pictures and farm sizes of all
farmers have been taken and given to farmers’ leaders for proper action in
case of farm encroachment |
2.94 |
0.406 |
Agreed |
|
18 |
Farmers have been trained on conflict
redress mechanism to prevent any conflict from escalating or involving police
or court |
3.23 |
0.693 |
Agreed |
|
19 |
TRIMING has taught farmers to resolve
any form of conflict with farmers’ leaders or village head as the best
options |
2.78 |
0.852 |
Agreed |
|
20 |
TRIMING has trained farmers how to
detect early if there is any form of farm encroachment by the neighbouring
farmers |
2.90 |
0.658 |
Agreed |
|
21 |
Conversion of lands and re-allocation
to farmers has put an end to farm encroachment among irrigation farmers |
2.86 |
0.604 |
Agreed |
|
22 |
Straightening of irregular-shaped
farms and re-allocating them to farmers has tackled the issue of land
encroachment among farmers |
2.76 |
0.725 |
Agreed |
|
23 |
Involvement of village and district heads in
the measurement of farms has reduced the incidence of farm encroachment by
farmers |
2.78 |
0.773 |
Agreed |
|
|
Grand mean |
3.01 |
|
Agreed |
Source:
Field work 2019
The result of the data in Table 2 used to answer research
question two revealed the mean scores all the 10 items to be above 2.5
benchmark for agree. The mean scores ranged between 3.27 and 2.76 with the
grand mean of 3.01. The grand mean of 3.01 obtained was greater than the 2.5
index mean score for agreed. The respondents therefore reported that TRIMING
Educational Programme has influence on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to land encroachment in North-West, Nigeria.
Test of Null Hypotheses
Hypothesis One
TRIMING Educational Programme has no significant influence
on conflict resolution among irrigation farmers due to water sharing in the
North-West, Nigeria
Table
3: Regression analysis on influence of TEP on CR among Irrigations farmers due
to water sharing
|
Model |
Unstandardized
Coefficients |
Standardized
Coefficients |
t |
Sig. |
R |
R2 |
Adj.
R2 |
||
|
B |
Std.
Error |
Beta |
|||||||
|
1 |
(Constant) |
.045 |
.145 |
|
18.170 |
.000 |
.922 |
.851 |
.848 |
|
TEP |
.970 |
.053 |
.922 |
||||||
Source: IBM SPSS 23.0 output
The regression analysis in Table 3 indicates that the extent
regression model predicts the dependent variable was significant. The
regression model revealed the p<0.05 which indicated that TRIMING
Educational Programme (TEP) has influence on conflict resolution among
irrigation farmers due to water sharing in the North-West, Nigeria. The R-value
of .922 was obtained with R2 of .851. The R2
value indicates that .851 (85.1%) variation of the conflict resolution among
irrigations farmers due to water sharing was determined the TEP. The hypothesis
is therefore rejected.
Null Hypothesis Two
TRIMING Educational Programme no significant influence
on conflict resolution among irrigation farmers due to land encroachment in the
North-West, Nigeria
Table
4: Regression analysis on influence of TEP on CR among Irrigation
Farmers due to Land Encroachment
|
Model |
Unstandardized
Coefficients |
Standardized
Coefficients |
t |
Sig. |
R |
R2 |
Adj.
R2 |
||
|
B |
Std.
Error |
Beta |
|||||||
|
1 |
(Constant) |
4.595 |
.416 |
|
5.222 |
.000 |
.565 |
.320 |
.308 |
|
TEP |
-.797 |
.153 |
.565 |
||||||
Source: IBM SPSS 23.0 output
The regression analysis used test null hypothesis
presented in Table 4. From the Table, the value of R-value was .565a
and R2 was .320, which means that 32% of the total variance on
conflict resolution among irrigations farmers’ dues to land encroachment was
influenced by the TEP. The p-value was less that the level of significance
(.000<0.05). The result therefore rejected the null hypothesis.
Discussions
Result of research question 1 in Table 1 showed that, all
the items were agreed by the respondents. This is because; all the items have
the mean scores greater than the 2.5 benchmark for agreeing. This implies that,
respondents agreed that, TRIMING Educational Programme has influence on
conflict resolution among irrigation farmers due to water sharing in
North-West, Nigeria. The test of null hypothesis one further affirmed that
TRIMING Educational Programme has significant influence on conflict resolution
among irrigation farmers due to water sharing in the North-West, Nigeria. This
is because; the p-value obtained was less than the significant level of 0.05
(.000>0.05. The outcome of the study is in line with Abubakar and Kuper
(2003) whose study shows that participatory irrigation management (PIM) helps
in promoting self-reliance, social justice, peoples' organization, and capacity
building on irrigation management issues. He reported that, the best way to
manage conflict among irrigators is to train them on how to design and strictly
abide by the irrigation scheduling calendar as planned by them or planned for
them by the scheme authorities. Bishnu
(2010) whose study indicated that to achieve peaceful co-existence between
water users within the irrigation area, there must be an attitudinal change by
the irrigation stakeholders through training on irrigation water use
efficiency, crop planning and effective irrigation scheduling.
Result of research question two revealed that, TRIMING
Educational Programme has influence on conflict resolution among irrigation
farmers due to land encroachment in North-West, Nigeria. This was revealed by
the calculated mean scores of items 14 to 23 used to answer the research
question with grand mean above 2.5 index score for agreed. The regression
analysis conducted to test null hypothesis two as presented in Table 4 further
affirmed that TRIMING Educational Programme has significant influence on
conflict resolution among irrigation farmers due to land encroachment in the
North-West, Nigeria. This finding is in agreement with the work of Walter
(2010) who said that, land dispute is a major source of conflict among crop
farmers and the way out is the conduct of a comprehensive cadastral survey of
all farmers by the farmers’ leaders or government authorities and training of
farmers how to demarcate and guard their farm boundaries. Bijani and Hayati (2015)
suggested that, land conflicts among farmers can be managed by surveying and
proper demarcation of farm lands where all the relevant parties (land owner,
farmers’ leaders, traditional leaders and scheme managers) are involved in the
determination and demarcation of farm boundaries.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that,
TRIMING educational programme was very effective in resolving conflict between
different water users (such as crop farmers, pastoralists and fishermen) within
the irrigation areas. This was because, results of research questions and null
hypotheses all revealed that, TRIMING educational programme helped in
maintaining peaceful co-existence between the different water users within the
irrigation areas. The response by all the different water users in the four
schemes (Bakolori Irrigation scheme, Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Scheme, Kano
Irrigation scheme and Hadejia Valley Irrigation Scheme) indicated that, TRIMING
educational programme has achieved success in resolving conflict within the
irrigation scheme in the North-West Nigeria. In view of the above this study
recommends the following:
1.
River Basin Development Authorities and scheme
management should ensure that, farmers design and adhere to irrigation
scheduling calendar during the growing season. This will help avoid conflict
between the upstream and the downstream farmers.
2.
River Basin Development Authorities and scheme
management should ensure that, farmers and other water users abide by the rules
and regulations concerning irrigation water use by the different water users as
introduced by TRIMING.
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The official website of the DEGEL Jounal is https://www.degeljournal.com
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