Two agricultural experts on Friday urged the government and other stakeholders to prioritise adoption of climate-smart agriculture and carbon credit for improved agricultural productivity.
The Access to Innovative Finance and Technology Integration Manager, Heifer International, an NGO, Mr Tajudeen Abubakar made the call on the sideline of the National Stakeholders’ Dialogue on Food Security in Abuja.
The dialogue organised by One Acre Fund (OAF) had as its theme: “Achieving Food Security in Nigeria: Bridging the Gap.”
Speaking in an interview, Abubakar identified climate change, characterised by excessive heat, flooding among others, as one of the challenges confronting the country’s food system.
According to him, the nation has to adopt climate-smart agriculture starting from quality and drought-resistant seeds to adopting climate-smart technology among others, to ensure improved productivity.
“The days of using cutlasses, hoes, diesel or fuel irrigation pumps are over. There are lots of low-cost solar-powered irrigation pumps available now.
“These can be made available to farmers because it reduces the effect of greenhouse gas emission,” he said.
Abubakar advocated for green finance, and urged financial institutions, governments and other stakeholders to assist farmers in accessing funds for carbon credit.
According to him, this will go a long way in helping to put an end to environmental pollution caused by diesel and fuel-powered irrigation pumps.
Abubakar commended the Federal Government for initiating agriculture transformation policies in the country, but emphasised that such policies should be implemented effectively.
“Government should work closely with private sector partners, sharing in their visions and objectives, providing concessions to some of them, so that they can play effectively in the agricultural field,” he said.
The Country Director, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Rufus Idris said the dialogue was basically to see how the sector could thrive by boosting the farmers’ capacity from the current subsistence farming to commercial.
Idris acknowledged that the sector had lots of job opportunities, which the country was yet to take advantage of.
“We have not taken advantages of the opportunities in the sector to create jobs, this is a sector that employs a lot of our people; both men, women and youth.
“More than half of Nigeria’s population are young people and they have opportunities in the agricultural space to thrive but we are not living up to our potential.
“There are lot of job opportunities on farms for young people and women, opportunities in terms of providing agricultural services, extension services, logistics, solar power for young people, and issues around value addition, processing among others.
“Let us get the sector booming, let’s get the food system actually thriving as we are trying to ensure we produce more food that will make our agro-industries more sustainable, stronger and operating at high capacity,” he said.
NAN
