Abstract: Urban and dry season farming in flood plains known as ‘Fadama’ farming is encouraged in Nigeria by the World Bank to boost agriculture and food security. State Ministries of Agriculture through Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) nationwide manage this activity. The paper describes a case study in Taraba State. Fadama farmers enjoy subsidized incentives viz. farm inputs, agrochemicals, pump sets, wash bores and others. However, farmers use any available water e.g. rivers, streams, polluted streams, ground water or untreated effluents, manures or pesticides with no quality regulations. Some of these also receive hazardous chemicals and pathogens, breed vectors and pose environmental and health risks. The water samples for quality analyses were collected from selected areas and their physico-chemical and heavy metal contents were determined using standard methods. The waters showed varying amounts of dissolved solids, boron, copper and chromium.  Some samples showed values above the national permissible limits. Some of the risk factors identified for unacceptable irrigation water quality were composition, choice of sources not guided by quality, indiscriminate disposal of municipal wastes, and use of agrochemicals when available which enter the water bodies as runoff, and stagnant water bodies promoting vector breeding and aquatic growths. Certain mitigation measures are suggested.