By Omotayo Edubi
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has advised stakeholders in the agriculture sector and farmers in Ogun State to make use of its weather prediction information to plan their farming activities and crop planting calendar.
Charles Olubiyi, a Numerical Weather Prediction Expert from NiMet, advised farmers in Abeokuta at a one-day Agriculture stakeholder’s workshop on improving the provision of climate information services to farmers.
The workshop which was put together by the Human Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), a Non-Governmental Organisation, in partnership with NiMet and Power of Voices Partnership-African Activists for Climate Justice.
Olubiyi said it is important to intimate farmers on the importance of climatological information to NiMET’s operations to help them boost productivity.
He said that through NiMet weather prediction and through directly liaising with the farmers, productivity has improved, adding that the lack of information concerning weather predictions before planting has affected so many farmers negatively.
“It has really helped in their food production, how you can profit from the usefulness of terrain in your farming, how upland planting, how low land planting can be enhanced by seasonal climate prediction,” he said.
Olubiyi stressed that the seminar is aimed at educating stakeholders in the agriculture value chain on how best to respect and follow seasonal climate prediction.
He said that NiMet is always making information concerning the weather available with a view to using it to plan farming and planting calendars as well as avoid flooding before it occurs.
“When there is likely to be some flooding in some parts of the north like we experienced in some areas two years ago in Jigawa, some of them are already privy to how they can mitigate these exigencies through NiMet predictions.
‘We as stakeholders have a role to play in ensuring that Nigeria becomes very robust when it comes to food security for our population,” he said.
Executive Secretary, HEDA Resource Centre, Mr Sulaiman Arigbagbu, said that climate change remained a big concern for Africa, especially for the vulnerable sectors which includes farmers.
Arigbabu opined that access to climate information services is still largely inadequate in Nigeria, saying it posed a problem not only to the farmers but the society.
He explained that one of the best ways to bring resilience into agriculture is for farmers to have access to appropriate, timely and accurate climate information.