Nigerian University Empowers Farmers With Information On Climate Change

In a bid to ensure food sufficiency in Nigeria, researchers from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, (FUNAAB) have began sensitization of farmers on the climate information services for early warning system on climate change in the south-west.

The unveiling of the research work aimed at assisting farmers to prepare against the impacts of climate change held in Abeokuta, was attended by stakeholders from the six states of the southwest.

The project trained 1,440 farmers from 70 villages across the six states on smart farming with access to early warning systems and information dissemination platforms.

The farmers through the research outcome also have access to weather information websites, online radio and other small phone enabled applications aimed at providing useful information on farming activities.

The researchers will also launch an application to assist the farmers in navigating climate conditions towards planning for their planting seasons and times.

The lead researcher, Dr. John Oyedepo, Deputy Director, Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources and Agricultural Research, FUNAAB, while speaking said the research sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) was to assist the country in achieving food security and improve the economic status of the farmers.

He hinted that the sensitization was to prepare farmers with alternatives to train as a source of farming, adding that the project also provided opportunities on how to farm better during the dry season.

According to the Lead Investigator on Early Warning and Climate Information Service, farming during dry seasons provide more yield because of less cloud cover, fewer weeds and fewer pests, adding that countries with less than two months of rainfall like Israel have food security and also export.

While explaining the details of the project, Oyedepo said the researchers were planning to send a policy document to the federal government towards ensuring the sustainability of the project which he said was in six phases.

He said, “In this part of the world, our farmers are dependent on rain, for instance now, many of them are not going to the farms yet because they don’t know what the rain pattern will be for this year but we can’t continue to wait for the rain. A nation that is rain-fed cannot feed itself because the rain can be erratic.”

“When we saw that problem, the farmers do not know when to go to the farm, when to come out of the farm, the onset and cessation of rain is not certain, and we thought we need to give them a kind of intervention and that is by putting in their hands something they can use to look at the weather and then plan their planting activities.”

“Fortunately, we got support from TETFUND and that has taken us to six states where we have established ‘climate-smart villages’, trained the farmers on the climate-smart agricultural practices, we have developed a mobile App that will help them predict or forecast the weather in real time.”

“We are also thinking of sending policy documents to the government so that this will not just end here, but something the government can support and put in in yearly budget for continuity.”

Speaking further about the N40 million project, he said: “In it, we established the early warning system, ground receiving station connected with geo-Netcasting in Germany, because we need quality data to be able to advise the farmers, reliable data, so we loaded the data in conjunction with the NiMet in Abuja and other institutions around this place like OAU, and other Institutions, we came together and you will see that the project was divided into six parts.”

“The first is the socio-economic aspect of it, you must know the baseline problem of farmers before you bring in any solution to them; we also develop a ground receiving station where you get quality data; we must disseminate the data, and that is why we bought those smart phoned, and from our analysis, we discovered that most of these farmers are using these smartphones, all they need is for us to train them to use in solving their problems.”

“The other thing we also did was to give them other interventions like the drip irrigation kit to demonstrate to them how to use them in case we have prolonged drought, they will be able to go to the farm and still produce something.”

“Incidentally, during the dry season, you get more yield because you have less clout cover, less weed, less pest.”

So, the yield is higher. We are not doing that here alone, in Israel, they barely have up to 2 0r 3 months of rain, yet, they are feeding themselves and exporting to Europe.

So, what stops us in Nigeria where we have the land, we have the soil and we have the weather. So, why can’t we do the same and even perform better?

In his remarks, Director of Research, Innovations and Partnerships of the Institution, Dr. Mutiu Busari, said the research would assist farmers to make informed decisions, adding that the essence of the programme was to create an impact on the life of the farmers.

Nigerian Tribune