March 24, 2024
The Director General/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) Professor Charles Anosike, has identified effective early warning system, equipping farmers with the knowledge of weather patterns and seasonal forecasting as sure means of boosting food security and ensuring adequate protection from climate disasters.
Anosike, who is also Nigeria’s Permanent Representative with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), spoke while participating as a panelist during the USAID Global Food Security Strategy Country Plan launch in Abuja.
The panel discussed the role of development partners and Nigerian MDAs in ensuring food security.
Nigeria’s current food security challenges, according to the NiMET DG, requires a new way of thinking by integrating weather and climate related factors into the entire agricultural value chain.
He said his organization was working with partners to “mainstream weather and climate information in the agricultural value chain” as its own contribution to stabilizing food security in the country.
He added: “We are using co-production mechanism to facilitate our seasonal climate prediction. NiMet ensures appropriate understanding and use of weather information by stakeholders to improve planning and strategic decision making.”
He cited NiMET’s annual Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP), a climate action -early warning tool, which he said “gives an outlook of weather and climate variability in upcoming months within the year. It highlights rainfall patterns and temperature variability”.
Continuing, Professor Anosike said: “Unpredictable rainfall patterns and extreme events can trigger competition for food and water. Declining agricultural outputs can lead to loss of income and exacerbate food insecurity. Temperature changes affect crop growth and yield, and can also destroy crops during post processing and transportation”.
“We need to intensify our collaborative efforts with deliberate and intentional strategy to promote climate – smart agriculture and invest in preparedness, and improve the response ability of our smallholder farmers. Climate change may not be the only source of our problems, however, climate change is the ‘threat multiplier’ as it intensifies resource scarcity and deepens food insecurity.”
