Last month’s resurgence of harmattan left many Nigerians begging for answers to ‘a harmattan in February’ phenomenon. Harmattan, a West African annual dry and dusty north-easterly trade wind, had already been witnessed late last year. It was the same sentiment that characterized the absence of an August Break (a short dry season that occurs annually in August) in 2015. The two occurrences are just a few evident signs of persistent erratic weather conditions, which for some years now have characterized global weather in what has been established as climate change by meteorologists.
Climate change has been responsible for global warming, reckoned as mankind’s greatest ecological problem. The phenomenon has been experienced in its most adverse form in recent years. Meteorologists have traced the genesis of global warming to 1880, noting that successive years have been hotter with 2015 being the hottest year.
Quite worrisome is the huge challenge that climate change poses to humanity, and particularly one of man’s oldest enterprises, agriculture, where its devastating consequences are most felt.
The impact of climate change is more overwhelming in Nigeria and other developing countries where rain-fed agriculture is still widely practised. This is coupled with poor water storage systems, absence of water management programme and water harvesting culture. All these create vulnerabilities for farmers in most developing countries to the harsh effects of climate change.
Climate resilient and smart agriculture are fast gaining popularity all over the world. Agriculture and weather experts have reiterated the need for farmers to develop the capability to adapt to climate change, especially considering the precariousness of rainfall and rainy seasons in recent years. One of the achievements of climate change adaptation is the development of drought resistant varieties of some crops, notably rice, which has just been known to flourish in dry season farming despite being a traditionally wet season crop.
It is against this background that the recent efforts being made by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) to provide science-based forecast to help its various stakeholders cope with the risks associated with irregular rainfall and general change in climate come as a huge relief. In March last year, NiMET presented its Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) for the country, during which it expressed its willingness and readiness to partner with any state government or private organization to downscale the SRP. SRP is part of the agency’s meteorological Early Warning System, which transmits customised, state-specific rainfall and temperature outlook for the year.
NiMET notes on its website that its report, which is also transmitted in local languages, is released to the public “in order to provide sufficient lead-time for its incorporation into decision-making processes of the various users such as policy makers, planners, farmers, water resources experts and hydropower generators.” It also provides training on interpretation and application.
Of particular interest in this regard is the signing of an MoU between NiMET and the British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) two weeks ago. This formal agreement is significant in many ways. It typifies the role of public private partnership in socio-economic development, especially in agriculture, which is a critical part of the non-oil sector that is considered very instrumental to the economic diversification bid of the Federal Government.
An independent charitable organization incorporated in Nigeria in 2002, the BATNF provides technical assistance to build productive capacity of smallholder farmers which lifts them from subsistence to commercial agriculture. It focuses on rice, cassava, maize, vegetables, oil palm, poultry and aquaculture value chains in the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The objective of the partnership, according to the Executive Director of BATNF, Mrs. Oluwaseyi Ashade, is for NiMET to provide weather information, including the likely period of dry spell and locations of likely flash flood occurrence to farmers who are mainly dependent on rain-fed agriculture. The partnership also entails that BATNF will collect information at the grassroots for NiMET, as explained by the outgoing Director General of NiMET, Dr. Anthony Anuforom. BATNF will also take advantage of the partnership to train partner organisations on the critical threshold of weather and climate monitoring and to provide other technical support for the attainment of the full economic potential for the smallholder farmers who account for 70 percent of food production in Nigeria.
Agriculture is one of the sectors of the economy that the agency, which is domiciled in the Ministry of Aviation, renders its services. Other sectors that enjoy its services are maritime, oil and gas, and tourism.
Although Nigerian economy is currently in recession, the agric sector presents a glimmer of hope as it recorded positive growth in 2016. 2017 holds even greater optimism for the nation’s economy with increased awareness of agriculture as a driver of economic development.
No doubt, the partnership between NiMET and BATNF could not have come at a better time, considering the critical role that climate change plays in agriculture and economic fortunes.
With global warming on the increase, conscious effort must be made to get the ecosystems to adapt naturally through advanced scientific knowledge.
Celestine Ogundare
Ogundare is an agric expert based in Lagos.
