Nigeria designs solutions for climate change challenges
A framework that makes it possible for agricultural risks associated with climate change to be anticipated and solutions proffered ahead has been released by the federal ministry of agriculture. This document was presented by Akinwunmi Adesina, minister of agriculture and rural development in Abuja, recently.
According to a statement by Tony Ohaeri, director, information and protocol at the ministry, this framework is designed by a group of 17 academics and experts from Nigeria, Africa and other parts of the world in various fields. The framework includes enhancing natural resource base for agricultural resilience, mainstreaming climate into agro-planning, extension transformation, innovative financing for agriculture, research and technology, monitoring and evaluation, as well as gender and culture, among others.
Jimmy Adegoke, chairman of the group, and Chidi Dike, marine ecology expert, are United States-based Nigerian professionals given the task of assembling world-class experts on the subject to design the framework by Nigeria’s minister of agriculture. The other 15 experts were drawn from Africa, Europe, USA and Asia, and were supported by nine ex-officio members made up of local Nigerian experts and bureaucrats in various areas of the agricultural sector.
While launching the agriculture climate resilience framework document, the minister identified drought and flooding as two key problems emanating from climate change. He cited the example of the 2012 flooding of about 21 states in Nigeria during which thousands of homes, hectares of farmlands and crops, lives and property were destroyed. He however pointed out that the flooding did not have any major negative impact on food security during the period, as the Federal Government had anticipated it and designed interventions proactively.
He revealed that the 2012 flooding however opened a new vista to planned and organised dry season farming in Nigeria, as it marked the beginning of the ministry’s dry season farming programme, which now allows smallholder farmers to access Growth Enhancement Support (GES) including 100 percent government-subsidised seeds and 50 percent fertiliser to cultivate certain crops in both the wet and dry seasons.
Adesina further said that desert encroachment and vegetation desiccation, which now affect not only farmlands but also drastically reduce grazing areas, had led to inward migration of herders from neighbouring countries into Nigeria, thereby raising the level of clashes between herders and farmers in the country. He also said drastic reduction in sea levels and fresh water resources would lead to increasing salinisation, which is harmful to fishery and aquaculture.
To address the adverse effect of rising temperature to food production, with support from President Goodluck Jonathan, the ministry commissioned the development of drought-tolerant and heat resistant varieties of maize, rice, wheat and sorghum, which are major staple crops. A number of heat tolerant varieties that could yield up to six metric tons per hectare have been developed in the country, he said. With this inspiring development, 75, 000 hectares were currently under wheat cultivation in the North, and with 300, 000 hectares projected in 2015, Nigeria would be able to produce all of its wheat need and possibly exit importation within a few years, as more acreage is put under cultivation, he said.
He equally listed other measures that must be taken to increase the nation’s agricultural resilience to climate change. These include the development of farming early warning systems to help farmers make informed and timely decisions in their farm operations, establishment of agro-meteorological stations which are currently very few in Nigeria, development of weather index insurance products to protect farmers from sudden and extreme climate change scenarios and the development of many more small and large-scale irrigation schemes, among others.
Also, Jimmy Adegoke, who chaired the team that developed the framework, stated that information gathered by the committee among farmers, fishermen, herders and so on during the field research indicated that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was actually well advanced in the implementation of many of the recommendations contained in the framework through its GES and other agro-management support programmes. The professor observed that such a development was unprecedented in the country and that MDAs need to put in place structures as well as design programmes and strategies to sustainably enhance Nigeria’s resilience to climate change.
Also, at the launch of the national climate change agricultural resilience framework, representatives of international organisations operating in the country such as United Nations systems in Nigeria, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), UK Department for International Development (DFID), Oxfam, the World Bank Group, African Development Bank, as well as Kansas State University (USA), and Nigeria’s University of Port Harcourt heaped encomium on the Federal Government for blazing the trail in developing a landmark framework for addressing challenges associated with climate change
Daouda Toure, resident co-ordinator of United Nations systems in Nigeria, said whereas a wide range of risks and impacts of climate change on food security, national security, biodiversity, habitat, public health and a host of others had long been recognised by governments, policy makers and experts all over the world, it was doubtful if any country anywhere in the world had risen to the occasion by designing a framework for anticipating these risks and tackling them.
The representatives of the of World Bank mission and ECOWAS implored the Federal Government to share the framework with other African countries. According to them, the framework is a vital resource that can be easily adapted to contexts in all other African countries, especially West Africa.
OLUYINKA ALAWODE