This information was presented during the Sahel Food Systems Changemakers Conference in Abuja, which was organized by Sahel Consulting.
Dr. Sanjo Faniran of UN Food System and Prof. Mansur Matazu, Director General and CEO of NiMET, had a lengthy discussion about these topics at a session led by Oge Funlola Modie.
They claimed that because of erratic and harsher weather patterns that interfere with the usual agricultural cycle, Nigeria was experiencing hitherto unheard-of difficulties. A few more are the increasingly frequent and erratic rainfall, protracted droughts, and catastrophic floods that endanger agricultural productivity and the welfare of farming communities.
According to them, this has led to an endless cycle of crop failures and food insecurity, leaving farmers in a vulnerable situation as they determine when to plant, water, fertilize, and harvest their crops.
"These issues disrupt the country's food supply chain and drive up food prices, affecting not only crop productivity but also livestock productivity," they stated.
Being one of the nation's oldest public organizations, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) is tasked with the vital duty of providing meteorological information to the government and the public via forecasts and warnings for timely action by actors and the socio-economic impact of weather and climate changes across various government sectors. It is impossible to overstate the significance of agro-meteorology to sustained agricultural productivity and public safety.
"It has been demonstrated that implementing climate advice into farming can lower risk and enhance productivity by about 30%. Early warning advising services for smallholder farmers are crucial in mitigating the impact of climate change-related disasters. Nigeria faces a difficulty in this regard.
In order to support sustainable agricultural development, boost productivity, and support food security in Nigeria, NiMET "generates and analyzes frequent weather and climate data and has developed numerous products for real-time weather and climate services to farmers, herders, and fishermen," the statement continued.
While there are donor-funded initiatives that assist smallholder farmers in integrating weather and climate early warning advisory systems into their operations, they are small-scale and restricted to project focal areas and priority value chains. Furthermore, weather and climate advisory services are not included in Nigeria's Agri-Extension package.
This puts smallholder farmers in remote places without any possibility of accessing this vital knowledge, especially when combined with Nigeria's dire lack of extension agents.
The subnational level's integration of weather and climate advisory systems is one of the recommendations offered to address this. They pointed out that the federal level has been the focal point of early warning initiatives in Nigeria thus far.
State and local governments must thus make the necessary investments in collaborations and efforts to downscale seasonal climate prediction data to the district levels.
"Local actors must be involved for optimal implementation in order to guarantee grassroots adoption, resilience, and ownership.
"NiMET must work with farmer and industry associations like the All-Farmers Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Agribusiness group to reach smallholder farmers at scale, collaborating with existing farmer networks to further drive last-mile dissemination of essential weather and climate advisory services."These groups may be able to offer a planned method of disseminating specific information to farmers in the area and region.
In order to facilitate the development of accessible and reasonably priced information delivery systems via SMS and USSD codes, strategic alliances between NiMet, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and private telecommunication companies should be fostered.
This will help develop a standardized early warning alerting system that will provide SMEs and smallholder rural farmers with reliable information.
There is no denying the difficulties that climate change has brought about for Nigeria's food and agriculture industries. Nigeria has to implement advanced weather early warning systems at all levels in order to guarantee food security, preserve economic stability, and improve the lives of millions of people.
"The country can give farmers the knowledge and resources they need to manage the unpredictable climate future with a committed approach and investments in these systems, ensuring a better agricultural landscape for all."