By Nneka Nwogwugwu
A Cassava farmer, Babatunde Ishadeko, has stated that climate change is a major constraint for Smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
Ishadeko made this known in Lagos on Friday, while appealing to the Federal Government to support smallholder farmers with inputs, seedlings and funds to mitigate climate change effect on production.
According to him, climate change and the change in rain pattern pose serious threat and contribute to scarcity of cassava production in 2021.
He said that climate change was affecting all agricultural produce like cassava, maize, vegetables, tomato, pepper and other arable agricultural produce.
Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria, he said, “The major constraint cassava farmers have now is climate change. I lost about three hectares of cassava and three hectares of maize in 2020 due to lack of rain.
“If you can remember around June and July last year, there was a break in the rainy season for 50 days.
“I have a weather chart on my farm which I used in monitoring the weather, so we did not have rain for 50 days during the peak season.
“Climate change is the main constraint we are having now, ‘’ the cassava farmer said.
He noted that lack of rain or change in pattern was not good for agriculture which was why many food commodities were very expensive in the market.
Ishadeko urged the government to do more to mitigate the effects of climate change on small holder farmers to boost food production and security in the country.
