[5] Today it turns south and then southeast until it joins the Hawal River, its main tributary.
[citation needed] The river downstream from the dam has also narrowed and become less winding, with fewer separate channels.
[7] The Gongola's floodplains are covered with fertile black alluvial soil [8] [9] Cotton, peanuts (groundnuts), and sorghum are grown and sold to other parts of the country.
[10] The government built the Kiri Dam on the river near Numan to provide irrigation for a sugar plantation.
[11] The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which announced the discovery of crude oil and gas in the Gongola Basin, northern Nigeria, noted that the commercial viability of the discovery from the drilling to a total depth of 13,701 ft before hitting oil and gas in several levels was yet to be ascertained.