Professionals have said that there is need to strengthen climate information service delivery for a resilient food system in Nigeria. This was said at a one-day workshop on “Developing a Feedback Framework for Climate Information Service Delivery in Nigeria,” held in Lagos recently.
The one-day workshop was jointly organised by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), Human and Environment Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre and OXFAM International with the primary aim of seeing how climate information services in Nigeria could be strengthened to build resilience in the food system.
The keynote speaker of at the workshop and Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), Professor Mansur Biko Matazu, said the current food system was rife with inequalities and issues that prevented adequate food security for all with grave consequences.
Prof. Mansur further said that NiMET had been in the forefront of providing early warning services and various weather, and climate information generated by NiMET are available for clients and stakeholders across the socio-economic sectors of the country.
He urged all farmers and stakeholders to make good use of the seasonal climate predictions and other services provided by NiMet so that they could achieve desired impacts.
When asked on the impact of the one-day workshop, the Executive Secretary of HEDA, Mr. Suleiman Arigbabu, said: “We realise that the capability of NiMET and the products that we have are not being optimally adopted and adapted for the agricultural sector. The information is not getting to the farmers when needed even though NiMET is doing a lot about trying to reach out.
“We went round a few states meeting with farmers, various stakeholders in building the ADPs in state and state agriculture authorities, local government agriculture authorities, research institutions, private sector and the whole idea is to see what their experience is with having access to climate information services.”
Arigbabu added that so many people were still ignorant of the extent to which NiMET was able to provide climate and agriculture information. He said the idea was to strengthen stakeholders’ knowledge and make them know the benefits of climate information.
Honorable Rotimi Abiru, who was also present at the workshop, said the House of Assembly would be there to await proposals either from the private sector or the government on bills to help further drive down what had been said at the workshop.
Abiru said: “We do not have a lot to do directly with the farmers, but pass legislation that will help actualise what we all have heard and learnt here today, for the fact that I had the opportunity to be here, it will not be of much problem for me to advocate this to my colleagues.”
