Climate change is emerging as a major challenge to agriculture development in Nigeria. The increasingly unpredictable and erratic nature of weather systems all over the continent has placed an extra burden on food security and rural livelihoods. Recent widespread destruction of farms and homes by flooding in parts of West Africa and the prolonged drought in parts of East Africa, demonstrate the extent of the threat posed by Africa’s changing climate. Agriculture is therefore expected to pay a significant cost of the damage caused by climate change.

It is not very easy to predict precise future climate conditions, but the scientific consensus as at 2007 is that global land and sea temperatures are warming under the influence of greenhouse gases (see air pollution article here), and will continue to warm regardless of human intervention for at least the next two decades, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are mainly due to the 80 per cent increase in annual CO2 emissions since 1970. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), in 2007, has emphasized that agricultural production and the biophysical, political and social systems that determine food security in Africa are expected to be placed under considerable additional stress by climate change.

It is believed that Nigeria will be the most vulnerable to climate change in the West Africa Region, due to the multiple stresses of population, poor infrastructure, poverty and governance. Temperatures are likely to increase by between 1.5-4ºc in this century. Projections on yield reduction show a drop of up to 50% and crop revenue is forecast to fall by as much as 90% by end of this century. In response to variations in temperature and precipitation, Nigeria is predicted to see an increase in crop pests and diseases in addition to altered soil fertility.

As we can see today in declining crop yield, particularly the case of tomatoes and maize. Declining incomes and rising unemployment are expected to hit agriculture zones in combination to worsening health. A fall in nutrient access is likely to raise susceptibility to diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

The capacity of Nigerian government to act decisively on climate change has been hampered by the economic downturn. Declining government revenue due to falling incomes from exports and remittances has placed added strain on efforts to generate funding for mitigation and adaptation programmes. Without extensive adaptation, the effects of climate change on agriculture is expected to exacerbate Africa’s deepening food crisis, narrowing channels of food access and slowing efforts to expand food productivity. Farmers would therefore see lower crop yields, loss of arable land, less food available and malnutrition would also increase.

How we can help Nigerian farmers

We already have many tools at our disposal to help farmers better manage the risks associated with a changing climate. It is recommended that we promote the development and adoption of crops that can tolerate higher temperatures and drought conditions. FAO calls for strategies for agricultural intensification and resilience of food production systems to be strengthened through the formation of key synergies between mitigation and food security. Achieving this would largely depend on successfully leveraging finance from mitigation in order to support climate smart agricultural development strategies.

We can also improve energy access, which would enable us to expand irrigation systems. Overall, it is critical to boost agricultural productivity now by facilitating investment in the sector and improving crop management techniques. Small scale renewable energy such as solar energy has been developed to be cost-effective in smart farms, irrigation systems, products processing and storage among others.

Massive encouragement of youths through funding and other incentives to engage in agricultural programmes would bring in fresh ideas and innovations into farming, food processing and storage. Such initiative is underway in the proposed N-Power Agro programme of the Nigerian federal government targeted at hundreds of thousands of young graduates.

Awareness campaigns taken to remote areas with large clusters of farmers in needed. Government’s redoubled efforts on educating populace on climate change and its implications will go a long way to enabling necessary preparation. Moreover redoubling and consolidating existing projects and programme activities (including greater integration of social protection strategies) will make a significant contribution in reducing climbing trends on hunger and malnutrition at regional level.

Source: http://www.getgreen-blog.com/impacts-climate-change-nigerian-agriculture-can/

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