Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP), an NGO, has trained 50 women and youths on smart agricultural practices in Nasarawa State.
Mr Joseph Ibrahim, the Programme Manager for GIFSEP, stated this at a 2-day training on promoting Nature Based Solutions in food production on Wednesday in Lafia.
The programme manager said that the training became necessary to strengthen adaptive capacity of women and youths to be able to response to climate change issues in their various communities.
Ibrahim said that the farmers who were impacted by climate change in their food production practices were identified from different communities in the state.
Ibrahim explained that the training would equip the participants with skills on smart agricultural practices to grow their foods using the natural resources they have at home.
“This programme is aimed at promoting nature based solution in food production in Nasarawa and Benue States.
“We have identified farmers, particularly women who have been impacted by climate change in their food production practices.
“Firstly, we interacted with them to know some of the challenges they are facing, and then train them on climate smart agricultural practices using the natural resources in their homes.
“It is important that we train these people in skills and techniques to be able to produce something in their homes to curb poverty and ensure the sustainability of the livelihood of rural and urban women,” he said.
Ibrahim said that GIFSEP had made significant impacts in two thematic areas – influencing policy and improving the adaptive capacity of women to be able to response to climate change.
Gloria Agema, Executive Director, Gee Foundation for Social Justice and Development and lead facilitator at the training said the essence was to get farmers acquainted with modern ways of farming for increased agricultural productivity and income in a sustainable way.
She said that farmers were facing challenges of climate change such as soil infertility, flooding, high temperature, dry spells, pest and diseases among others.
Agema said that they must adapt ways of coping with the challenges for better livelihoods.
Agema, therefore, called on the participants to adopt climate smart agriculture and look at ways of improving their farm produce to be able to cope with the current realities of climate change.
She appealed to government and other relevant stakeholders to develop policies that would support climate smart agriculture with a view to addressing issues of climate change affecting farmers and the people at large.
Kenneth Akpan, National Coordinator of the African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ) project for Oxfam in Nigeria, urged the participants to step down the knowledge gotten from the workshop to their community members.
Some of the participants, Rejoice Asoloko and Asaba Averson, both persons with disability, promised to use the knowledge gained to adapt and build resilience to the adverse effects of climate change in their environment.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that GIFSEP is implementing the AACJ, a five-year project, with support from Oxfam in Nigeria and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
(NAN)
