Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) has held a day stakeholders workshop on climate information services to help farmers improve their output.
The workshop, which was held in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, was co-organised by Oxfam in partnership with the NIMET.
Participants at the workshop were drawn from NIMET, Kwara ministry of agriculture, ARMTI, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and farmers.
Speaking at the occasion, the Executive Secretary of HEDA), Arigbabu Suleiman, said that the importance of climate information services to farmers in the country could not be over-emphasized.
He said that climate change impacts on the food crises and poverty induced conflicts experienced in Nigeria.
He said that the annual Seasonal Climate Predictions (SCP) and other forecasts from NIMET to the agriculture sector are parts of critical efforts to building the resilience of smallholder farmers in the nation.
He said that it is important for stakeholders to improve the dissemination of data and forecasts from NIMET for the agriculture sector in the grassroots.
“This programme is important to food security, our agriculture is climate dependent that is why we do seasonal farming.
“Our aim is to mobilise stakeholders on how to properly optimise climate information being provided by NIMET to empower our farmers so that we can build resilience into our food system especially food production.”
Arigbabu said that government should help farmers to access climate information, adding that agricultural research institutions need information on climate change in order to help the farmers avoid food shortages.
He noted that agriculture remains the mainstay of the nation’s economy and employs about seventy percent of rural workforce who contribute a larger proportion of food consumed in Nigeria.
A representative of NIMET, Desmond Oyinlo, in his presentation, highlighted the importance of SCP to farming saying that it would help in agricultural planning towards food sustainability.
Oyinlo said the agency was ready to partner with NGOs, CSOs and agricultural groups on SCP towards ensuring food security.
Mohammed Hassan, a representative of the Kwara Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the state government was ready to bridge the communication gap among stakeholders.
Hassan said this would be done by updating its network base, engaging more agric extension workers and also building synergy with NIMET to ensure adequate information get to the farmers even in the remote rural areas.
Participants hailed the organisers for the workshop, saying that it has brought together stakeholders to rub minds, design a workable information system and in all help resolve key challenges confronting farmers in the area of climate information.
Source: NAN.
