Stakeholders Unveil Decision tool on Drought

By,Temitope Mustapha,Abuja

A decision management tool on Drought Early Warning System has been presented to stakeholders in Agricultural, Water Resources and Environment Sectors to help tackle issues of drought in Northern Nigeria.

The tool according to researchers predicts livelihood as regards shortage or reduction in available water either interms of moisture for Agriculture or for water resources drainage.

The tool is to help farmers maximise information as well as further prepare them for irrigation farming.

In a One day Workshop on Drought Early Warning System for Northern Nigeria, a meeting held to share the outcome of a research with policy makers , the Chief Researcher of the Drought warning system, Professor David Jimoh from the Federal University of Technology FUT Minna , said the tool will enable stakeholders plan ahead and forestall future occurrences.

According Prof. “drought comes in gradually while the effect on the environment persists while the user of the environment could not do anything so the importance of our findings is to know when drought is coming so as to make preparations ahead”

He noted that the fight against drought has witnessed significant progress specifically in the areas of forecasting monitoring but with the nature of drought which spreads in adaptation at the regional level , it forecasting and management by national institutions in the country remains elusive owing to lack of institutional capacity .

Prof. Jimoh added that against this backdrop ,a forecast model and software tool will now be integrated within a decision support system , he stressed that this will lead to the provision of a dynamic and accessible drought information system that will provide stakeholders with abilities to determine the potential impacts of drought and the associated risks.

The Representative of the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency, Engr. Ayodele Awhi, said Nigeria being a peculiar nation in climate conditions will benefit immensely in the output of the research work into drought early warning system .

“this is timely intervention ,it will help stakeholders to be able to have predictive situations and analyse situations ahead of time “

Awhi added that this will further help his organisation look into certain parameters of drought.

The Deputy Director Hadejia-Jama’are River Basin Development Authority ,Kano, Ayatuleahi Salihu stated that the research will mitigate the harmful effects of drought through its weather advisories.

A key facilitator at the Workshop, Prof Johnson Otun ,from the Ahmadu Bello University ,said the workshop was structured to stimulate critical thinking and reflection amongst participants to enable them transform issues into parts of communication strategies that would ensure appropriate utilisation and application of the outcomes and the findings of the research study.

“basically it is a decision management tool to help stakeholders in Water Resources, Agriculture and Environmnet sectors to address issues of drought”

Prof Otun said the outcomes of the research are products of investment of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFUND, in studies that would benefit the Nigerian populace.

According to him, “this shows that we can make investment into research help the populace on how they can benefit from research output as you have heard the output is useful to farmers it will tell them how to maximise information that comes out of the presentation”

The research on Drought Early Warning System was funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund under it Special funds for Research in Nigerian public universities.