By Bisola Adeyemo
To combat the scourge prediction of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), smallholder women farmers on the platform of Small Scale Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON), in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo state, have learned the techniques of irrigation farming.
The agency’s zonal manager for Southwest, Mr Adewale Ajeyomi, had earlier advised the women to utilise climate smart solutions to beat the predicted early rain cessation, Environews reports
He said: “There has been a shift in the weather system due to climate change brought about by development everywhere, buildings and all sorts are affecting the wind pattern, temperature and many other things. Deforestation is part of the problem of climate change.
“This means the temperature can be a little bit higher, and during the rainy season, they are going to experience dry spells. They are expected to be having rain but at a point in time the rain would cease.
“Farmers can do their planting in their normal pattern this time around except for the Oke-Ogun areas, that is, the northern fringe of Ibadan.”
Irrespective of this initiative, Mrs Musilatu Ashiru, Saki East SWOFON leader, said: “We do irrigation farming manually. We wet the plants ourselves because we lack the modern technology for doing proper irrigation farming.
“We need water; so we want boreholes to continue the irrigation farming, we plant vegetables, tomatoes and pepper. For irrigation farming you can have pepper all year round.
“We ought to have cultivated our lands in preparation to plant yam since last year but most people have been unable to cultivate their lands since last year not to talk about planting yam and the irregular rainfall patterns have started again,’’ she said.