Agriculture Stakeholders Unite To Build Climate Resilience For Food Security

In a bid to address the pressing challenges posed by climate change, key stakeholders in Nigeria’s agricultural sector have united to strategize on building resilience and securing sustainable food systems.

 

The stakeholders, who are members of the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security, converged on Calabar, the capital of Cross River State in southern Nigeria for their 46th regular meeting with the theme “Resilience to Climate Change Towards Sustainable Food Security.”

 

Other participants included farmers, representatives of state governments and international organisations as well as agric-business and other players in the sector.

In a remark to declare open the conference, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Temitope Fashedemi maintained that the agricultural sector remained essential for the Nigeria’s economic recovery, stabilization and growth.

 

Fashedemi urged stakeholders, “at this gathering, we must objectively explore the best ways to maintain food security, generate employment, and create wealth. This involves assessing the effectiveness of ongoing initiatives and refining strategies for a significant economic impact.”

 

The Permanent Secretary, who underscored the importance of sustaining commodities value chain, further charged participants to deliberate and evolve policies that would promote sector linkages, propose import substitution initiatives and support value-added processing and export-oriented activities.

 

He urged participants to deliberate and evolve strategies that would encourage the adoption of climate-smart practices to assist farmers tackle environmental and climatic challenges impacting crop yields, water availability and soil quality.

According to him, there was need to provide incentives to researchers, farmers and processors to boost agricultural output and meet national needs, thereby encouraging greater investment in agriculture, creating jobs and most importantly build climate change resilience.

 

Earlier, Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Mr. Johnson Ebokpo, reiterated the need for a collective commitment to tackle challenges in the sector arising from the effect of climate change on sustainable food systems.

 

Ebokpo remarked, “food security is central to the Renewed Hope agenda of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and supports the policies of state governments, particularly the People First agenda of our visionary Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu.”

 

The commissioner urged the participants to engage in constructive dialogue, share best practices and synergise for solutions that would enhance sustainable food production amid climate change challenges.

 

There were several goodwill messages from international and national organisations such as Actionaid, the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, among others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oyenike Oyeniyi