A global multi-institutional collaboration is planning the deployment of a $500m fund for engendering smartness in agricultural development and policy conceptualisation from igniting efficacious and credible data gathering.
Through an internationally conceived 50×2030 initiative, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have put pen to papers to, in 10 years, commit the sum of $500m towards data gathering to stem agricultural production without solid information base.
Expected gains from the 50×2030 initiative include, among others, increased agricultural productivity, enhanced livelihoods and development of informed, smart and virile Agricultural policies. The programme aims to build capacity to enable data-driven policies and decision-making.
The partnership through the initiative would directly impact 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America by 2030. In Nigeria, the mandate for implementing the initiative is the Agro Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project
Through ACreSAL, the Federal Government strategises checking the menace of desertification, restoring degraded lands, developing special ecosystems and catalysing sustainable agricultural production in 19 northern states, as well as the FCT, Abuja.
The initiative will help achieve food security, sustainability and climate change by building stronger national agricultural data systems.
Explaining would-be gains with the initiative, the Project Task Team Leader, AGReSAL, Dr Joy Ighanya Agene enthused the initiative holds great promises. They include, among others, taming desertification, stemming the shrinking of the Lake Chad, obviating the climate change induced pastoral nomadism that keep unleashing farmers – herders clashes and insecurity.
She rued the possibility of the 50×2030 initiative to catalyse the development of a virile Agro Data Bank and its timely release to guide Agricultural and climate experts to guide policy makers in planning Nigeria Agricultural progress.
Addressing a team of strategic experts drawn locally and internationally, Agene explained the need for contributions from stakeholders who would enliven the initiative.
