**3. Conclusion**

This chapter presented a review of the operation and management of irrigation schemes in the northern part of Nigeria. The main aim of this study was to identify and relate key values operating in the northern Nigerian irrigation sector from a sustainability point. This includes identifying the causes and effects of impending problems and hence, suggesting ways forward to achieve sustainable food security at the face of the ever-increasing population in the country. The major motivation factor for this review was the fact that studies on assessing the performance of systems such as irrigation schemes using the concept of sustainability are gradually gaining popularity and growing at a high rate in recent years. The appraisal revealed that several impediments have been hindering the performance of irrigation practice in Nigeria which includes inconsistent government policies, low awareness and lack of technical know-how among the farmers on irrigation farming system, and untimely financial intervention.

Another insight of interest gained from the work was that the huge investment in both large- and medium-scale irrigation schemes in the northern part of Nigeria have been resulted in irrecoverable losses due to quite several issues. Some of these problems comprise of under-utilization of water resources, poor management, infrastructural decay and abandonment. Generally, studies revealed that irrigation schemes in northern Nigeria performed far below expectations with approximately 65% capacity utilization. About half (50%) of the farmers express unhappiness, dismay and loss confidence with the way irrigation schemes are operated. Water managers blame farmers to lack enthusiasm toward abiding by the set rule and regulations governing irrigation schemes. In addition, study by [50] revealed that about 45% of the farmers do not participate in the maintenance of the irrigation schemes which further exacerbate the problems. However, some irrigation projects are performing relatively very well. The income and the standard of living of the farmers around well-performing irrigation projects were observed to improve significantly compared to poor performing ones.

Thus, there is a need to holistically improve the general operational performance of the existing irrigation schemes in northern Nigeria through the following;


*Sustainability-Based Review of Irrigation Schemes Performance for Sustainable Crop… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.103980*
