Benefits of Irrigation among Smallholder Farmers in Southwest Nigeria

The wealth of a nation depends to a large extent on its ability to properly harness of its natural resources, which include water and soil. Southwest is the cocoa-belt of Nigeria but, both cash and food crops have consistently decline in the last few years, due to change in land cover and rainfall pattern. This phenomenon constitutes a threat to food security and calls for efforts to explain the downward trend and make recommendation for improvement. This book examines the key factors that determine smallholder farmers' use of irrigation water, investigates the benefits derivable from the use of irrigation, access other alternative uses of irrigation water beside agriculture, and showcase a comparative analysis of soils from selected locations in the study area with respect to crop yield. A novel technique that combines field surveys with socioeconomic analyses was adopted. For sustainable agricultural production through multiple cropping all year round in the study area, a high premium should be placed on irrigation and the households' non-agricultural water uses should be included in irrigation planning for a holistic as well as effective water resources management.