Prof. Wilfred I. Okonkwo| Home

<html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> Abstract Climate change is perhaps the most serious environmental threat to humanity and the global food web. The impacts of climate change are manifest in hunger, low agricultural productivity, poverty, malnourishments and high soaring prices of food stuff that are presently ravaging the entire land. The challenges of changing weather, rain variability, increasing temperature rise, drought, deforestation and low productivity underscores the need for this paper. ``The paper discuses measures and ways to enhance food production through climate resilience smart agriculture in Nigeria. Nigeria’s farming community consists 70% of the population out of which 88.4% constitutes subsistence and 11.6% are the medium to large scale framing which produce about 70% of the food consumed by over 200 million Nigerians. Solution to ameliorating the increasing impacts of climate change should be individual-government-private sector driven. Therefore, in the face of exploding population and increasing impacts of climate change, climate resilience smart agriculture has major key role to play. Benefits of smart agriculture include improved food production, use of modern equipment to enhance food production, growing climate change resistant crops and seedlings, enhanced environment etc. Government programmes should be tailored towards achieving active participation of everyone, funding of agricultural research, empowerment of local farm holders, capacity building, drought resistant and short duration high yielding crop development, integration of indigenous and modern knowledge on climate change adaptation, strengthening of extension services and encouragement of the formation of farmers groups. This paper highlights key impacts of climate change on Nigeria agricultural development. It provides policy recommendations to address these challenges for sufficient food production. Introduction Our forefathers were able to feed the population then because all were involved in agriculture both the father, mother and the children. But things have really changed. Since the advent of white-collar job only very few individuals are involved in agricultural production. Even in the face of population explosion not many would want to be involved in agriculture yet all would want to eat the best food whatsoever. Majority of people that read agriculture and related disciplines won’t want to be associated or involved in agriculture. The effect is the soaring rise in food prices and general hardship. Population is outgrowing the rate of food production. Agriculture as a vital sector in the Nigeria economy contributes approximately 23% of the country’s GDP. The country has 70.8 million hectares of land area with rich agricultural sector base. Agriculture employs about 70% of the labour force. However, the major farming work are done by small farm holders who constitute 88.4% of the total while 11.6% are involved in medium to large scale production. Nigerian’s food import bill is on the increase and therefore a concern for the development of the economy. Factors like inadequate infrastructure, poor land tenure systems, low levels of irrigation application, land degradation, low technology, high production cost and poor distribution of inputs, limited financing, high post-harvest losses and poor access to markets and insecurity have been identified as challenges that contribute to the decline in food productivity.  Climate change exacerbates existing challenges, including low agricultural productivity and inadequate technology adoption. Reduced rainfall, shorter growing seasons, and rising temperatures threaten agricultural output, with some crops potentially facing yield reductions of up to 25 percent by 2050. Climate change is a reality and the global impact is felt everywhere. Rivers and streams are drying up, lands are being degraded due to deforestation, desertification and erosion, temperature rise and rainfall variability and the rising cost of living. These are the signs that the weather is changing and the global eco-system is being distorted and no longer in equilibrium. It is evident that early agriculture was practiced smart and therefore sustainable in an eco-balanced environment when temperature, rainfall and forest were undistorted and were in equilibrium and everything were normal.  Organic and sustainable agriculture were invoked while bushes were allowed to mature before being used again. Inter cropping and crop rotation sustained food production. But today with the improved agro-chemicals, technologies and improved seedlings feeding the population has become a difficulty task. With the increasing population, one would have thought that more hands would have been in agricultural production as there would be more food products available for the people. The rise in food prices in Nigeria, is partly due to global factors resulting from climate change, as the country imports some food to supplement local production.  FOOD CONSUMPTION AND THE POPULATION Nigeria, the Africa’s biggest economy relies heavily on importation for many goods consumed in the country, including food. This is not healthy for the development of the economy. Nigeria’s food import bill has been on the rise in recent years. According to THISDAY 5th June, 2024 despite being touted as the food basket of Africa, Nigeria has spent over N7.8 trillion in the past six years on food import alone while a report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), states that Nigeria’s food import bill jumped by 45 per cent to $2.71 billion (N1.12tn) in 12 months. Nigeria exports and imports of goods and services as percentage of GDP stood at 10.74% and 11.84% respectively. The average agricultural output growth between 2011 – 2020 was 3.5% against the backdrop of about 2.6% population growth rate.   This is a clear demonstration that the rate of population growth outweighs the rate at which food is produced. This accounts for the present-day food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition in the land. Nigeria has over 200 million people while it’s projected population by 2050 is about 400 million people. <a name="_Hlk168602218">This is a clear indication that something more urgent need to be done if the objective of the government is eradicating hunger by 2030 as stipulated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).</a>   <span style="font-size:11p

ENHANCING FOOD PRODUCTION THROUGH CLIMATE RESILIENCE SMART AGRICULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

ENHANCING FOOD PRODUCTION THROUGH CLIMATE RESILIENCE SMART AGRICULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

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ENHANCING FOOD PRODUCTION THROUGH CLIMATE RESILIENCE SMART AGRICULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

ENHANCING FOOD PRODUCTION THROUGH CLIMATE RESILIENCE SMART AGRICULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

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