TAAT excites Nigerian Youths with new irrigation technologies for dry season farming

 

Ayuba Abimiku, a young rice farmer at Gidan Mai-Akuya community in Nasarawa state, North-central Nigeria, is excited.

Ayuba is witnessing the operation of a pressured plastic-piped sprinkler for the first time!

“This system allows for proper water management and the farmer can determine the right amount of water needed in the field per time,” he enthused.

“With this, less water is required, unlike the old method which often floods our farms,” he said.

“This technology has made dry season rice farming attractive to the youths, who hitherto do not want to get themselves dirty,” Godiya Ovey, from Madagba community, said.

“This is a system that does not require much effort once you know how to set it up. You can combine it with other endeavours,” he added.

Moses Tsaku, another youth farmer from Azuba-Bashayi community, says the pressured sprinkler and the wet and drying scheduling irrigation technologies have made dry season farming a lot easier.

“These technologies have completely changed my perception about farming,” Moses declared excitedly.

WELCOME TO HELL FIRE: Nigeria’s Torture Chambers Exposed

Nigeria's torture profile, hitherto regarded as an open-secret, known only by security agents, victims of torture and their relatives, has burst open on the global stage following the release of a comprehensive by Amnesty International, entitled "Welcome to Hell."

The report graphically exposes the fact that Nigeria’s police and military routinely torture women, men, and children – some as young as 12 – using a wide range of methods including beatings, shootings and rape.

teenage boy arrested for being a suspected militant
had melted plastic poured on his back in 2013

“Welcome to hell fire”: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria details how people are often detained in large dragnet operations and tortured as punishment, to extort money or to extract “confessions” as a shortcut to “solve” cases. 

“This goes far beyond the appalling torture and killing of suspected Boko Haram members. Across the country, the scope and severity of torture inflicted on Nigeria’s women, men and children by the authorities supposed to protect them is shocking to even the most hardened human rights observer,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director.