By Ime Akpan Lagos
Th e Director-General and Chief Executive Offi cer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Prof. Sani Abubakar Mashi, has advocated better use of climate information in agriculture to rebuild the sector and make it sustainable.
Mashi made the recommendation at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Jos, Plateau State where he presented a paper titled ‘Agro-meteorological Service Delivery for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Nigeria’ to participants of the Senior Executive Course No.39, 2017 programme. “Eff ective climate information and services will not only transform agricultural production from labourintensive high risk endeavor to knowledge based strategic enterprise, but will also enable sustainable utilization of resources to achieve food security in the country,” he said. He said climate and weather variability play an overriding role in determining the amount of the physical productivity of agricultural crops, livestock and forests as well as the risk of the failure of the productivity.
With over 100 years climate information on Nigeria in its archive, the director general said NIMET “has been playing a crucial role in addressing the issues relating to climate variability and change, and the possible impact on agriculture production and food security in particular.” He urged the federal government to set in motion the National Framework for Application of Climate Services (NFACS), use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and enforce eff ective intervention policies.
