Federal Gov’t Invests In Climate-smart Agriculture To Enhance Food Security

The Federal Government said it is investing in climate-smart agriculture to enhance food production and promote agroforestry and conservation agriculture amidst challenges posed by climate change and its impacts on food security.

Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal made the remark at a high-level event on ‘Partnering to Scale up Climate Actions in Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations – Zooming in on Food Security’ held in the Embassy of UAE in Rome.

“We are investing in climate-smart agriculture in order to enhance resilience of our food systems as well as promote practices such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture and the use of drought-resistant crop varieties,” the minister stated.

He however failed to mention how much Nigeria has invested in financial terms in the innovation that aims to improve food production while conserving natural resources.

Lawal simply said Nigeria is taking concerted steps towards addressing climate change and its impacts on food security.

Several policy frameworks like the National Climate Change Policy, the revised National Determined Contribution (NDC), National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change and Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021, have been adopted by Nigeria to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Nigeria has also been engaging with international partners to mobilise resources and expertise against fallouts of climate change.

The minister said the partnerships have enabled Nigeria to implement projects that enhance community resilience such as the Great Green Wall initiative which is aimed at combating desertification and restoring degraded lands across the Sahel region, noting that a lot of work is still required to tackle these challenges.

He called on the international community to fulfil their commitments to climate financing, particularly for fragile and conflict-affected states.

Financial support, the minister stressed, is crucial for implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies, building resilient infrastructure and ensuring that vulnerable communities are not left behind.

The session focused on solutions and good practices for building resilient livelihoods in communities facing the climate crisis and insecurity.

The minister outlined Nigeria’s comprehensive approach to addressing these challenges through local, national, and regional initiatives.

He further emphasised the importance of awareness, capacity building, collaboration, financial support, and technology transfer in leveraging international, regional, and local climate efforts.

Lwal also highlighted the challenges of funding, technology, and capacity building, while noting opportunities in renewable energy, climate-resilient agriculture, and regional cooperation.

For building climate-resilient agrifood systems, the minister called for coordinated involvement of all stakeholders, comprehensive studies to identify conflict causes, and adoption of measures to boost food security and climate adaptation.