Extreme weather events, threat to food security – NiMet

Extreme weather events such as drought, flood and heat waves constitute a serious threat to food security at both the household, community, regional, national and global levels, Anthony Anuforom, director-general, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), said.

Anuforom, who made the declaration yesterday at the 10^th annual lecture series of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, said the threat was as a result of the high vulnerability of agricultural production to weather variabilities.

Speaking on the theme, “The Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Food Security in Nigeria,” Anuforom said throughout history, the search for food had been the most fundamental human activity, and had influenced human behaviour and activities.

He however said that man’s quest for food security had continued to be hampered by extreme weather events, saying, in Nigeria, agriculture was predominantly rain-fed system and therefore highly vulnerable to rainfall extremes, and that recurrent droughts since the 1960s, “particularly those of the 1970s and 1980s, have been a great challenge to agricultural production and food security in the country.”

Flooding, which he noted was at the opposite extreme end of the spectrum of rainfall, is as devastating and detrimental to the quest for food security as drought.

According to Anuforom, “In 2012, Nigeria experienced one of the most devastating flooding on record. The floods destroyed farmlands and other means of livelihood of many households and killed very large numbers of livestock in the affected areas.

“The floods also destroyed roads, bridges and other infrastructure. The cumulative effect was a decrease in the availability as well as economic and physical access to food in the affected areas.”

The good news, however, according to the director-general is that the impact of extreme weather events on food security in Nigeria can be managed through “climate change adaptation policies and appropriate economic framework by government.”

He further stated that weather forecast and climate predictions, such as NiMet’s Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP), as well as other meteorological Early Warning Products “were useful tools for reducing vulnerability of agriculture and food security to extreme weather events” in the country.