The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, has advised Nigerian farmers and other critical stakeholders in the agricultural sector to take full advantage of farming in the dry season as part of efforts to prevent a food crisis in 2023.
This recommendation came in response to the ongoing increase in food commodities that came as a result of the devastating floods that ravaged most states, washed away farms, including destruction of lives and properties.
The director general, DG, of NiMet, Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, made this call during a one-day workshop on climate information service on the food crisis, organised by the Human & Environmental Developmental Agenda, HEDA, in Abuja.
The event, themed: ‘Averting a National Food Crises Post 2022 Flooding’, was attended by permanent secretaries from state Ministry of Agriculture, including General Managers, GM, of Agricultural Development Programme, ADP, across Nigeria.
Matazu, represented by the executive assistant to the DG of NiMET, James Adamu, also called for youth engagement as a means of boosting food production in the country.
His words: “Dry season farming seems to be more productive, and the risk associated with weather is less during the dry season. So, if people that have been affected are encouraged to go into dry season farming, you will find out that the effect on livelihood and food and nutrition insecurity in the country will be reduced.
“Also if we get our youths and engage them in agriculture, different forms of agriculture, vices in terms of conflict and insurgency, I think we. will have some relief that people will be engaged and they will not have time to be recruited as miscreants in the society.”
Reiterating NiMet’s commitment towards providing seasonal climate prediction early in the year for early preparation, urged state governors to be more proactive in taking measures geared towards protection of lives and properties.
In a similar vein, the executive secretary, HEDA, Resource Centre, Sulaimonn Arigbabu, while harping on the need for Nigerians to take advantage of the dry season farming, bemoaned slow reactions by stakeholders in the agricultural sector to the predictions of NiMet.
He said: “Dry season farming in Nigeria is a way of averting the food crisis that is already upon us, perhaps abating it should be a better choice of word.
“Over time, when NiMet releases its seasonal climate prediction, the country has not been able to take full advantage of this prediction especially for the agric sector and the reason is not far-fetched. The next step of action should happen at the state level. Once the prediction is made at the national level and importantly NiMet has the facility to zero in on each state, matter of fact on local government to give them annual prediction, monthly, even up to three days prediction about what the climate will be like what rain pattern will be or what heat pattern will be like and these are very instructive data for agriculture.
“Nigeria has not been able to take advantage of that because actions that are needed to take place at the state level or the local government level are not happening. So, we’re here with some permanent secretaries to brainstorm, to strategise on how we can have better a better, a more efficient early seasonal climate prediction step down for the state, dissemination of information to farmers because it’s important that farmers use the information to decide on what to plant, their planing window which comes from the crop weather calendar of NiMet and also the kind of varieties that they will plant.”
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