AFDB To Boost Nigeria Agriculture with Climate Resilient Crops

The president of the Africa Development Bank (AFDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has said the bank would be supporting Nigeria with high tolerance of maize, wheat, soya bean, among other crops to boost food security amidst climate change challenges.

He said the bank is supporting Nigeria in this year’s dry season to cultivate 118,000 hectares of heat tolerant wheat varieties and about 150,000 hectares of maize in the wet season that is coming, adding that, they have also been given 134 million dollars to support the cultivation of 300,000 hectares of rice, another 300,000 hectares of maize, 150,000 hectares of cassava and 50 hectares of soybeans.

The AFDB President made this known at the weekend when he visited the Centre for Dryland Agriculture at the Bayero University, Kano after he was conferred with a honorary Doctorate Degree by the University during their 38th convocation ceremony.

Dr. Adesina explained that climate change, in which Africa accounts for only three percent of global emissions, has no other alternative but to adapt to it by using crops that are tolerant and resistant, getting farmers inform with appropriate and timely information as well as supporting research institutions.

He said, “The fact that you have climate change doesn’t mean to be scared, the AFDB supported Ethiopia with heat tolerant wheat varieties that in three years allowed them to become totally self-sufficient and now a net exporter of wheat.

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“Therefore the issue is we have to make sure we help our farmers to know when it is going to rain, how much is going to rain, what crop to plant and when to plant and how to adapt if the weather is not very very good.

“We are all putting out hands around Nigeria and the Bayero University will play a big role here, so I don’t think climate change has to be a dead sentence, we know how to support farmers to adapt in the face of climate change and I can tell you that this centre will play a big role in that.

“We would work with them to become one of the key centres to get technology such as water efficient maize for farmers, to get heat tolerant wheat varieties to farmers at the scales of millions, that is the only scale that matters.

“We would work with them to become a centre in which we can use to do modelling work so that we can know how to predict weather patterns and get that information to farmers to plant better.

“We have a program that is called the African disaster risk insurance facility which supports farmers and countries in the face of climate change, this centre will play a big role,” he stated.

While restarting the the bank’s commitment to deepening it’s work, the AFDB President said he will ensure that the CDA is given a priority by the Global Centre on Adoption on which he sits on the board together with former UN Secretary General Banki Moon because the Centre is doing exactly what they want to see – supporting farmers in the face of climate change.

He also encouraged students to participate in its agriculture program called Agric pitch by generating brilliant ideas that can earn them grants of up to 120,000 dollars.

Dr. Adesina also thanked the management of BUK for honouring him alongside the deputy senate president, senator Barau Jibrin with honorary doctorate degrees.

In his remarks the Director of the centre, Prof. Jibrin M. Jibrin, said the centre which was established in 2012 has enrolled 1,153 PhD and MSC students and has trained more than 50,000 people in short professional courses who cut across 15 countries.

He added that the Centre run programs on Natural resource management and climate change; crops and cropping system; livestock production and range management; agricultural economics and MSC in Agricultural technology, noting that they are planning to make the program to be in a more modular format and move them online in order to make them more flexible and competitive around the world.