Climate Change and Agriculture
The Role of Government in Mitigating Risks 🌊
Countries like Nigeria have reiterated time and again how the importation of basic food items contribute heavily to the depletion of the economy.
As a country, reduction to importation has encouraged local cultivation of food supported by eenforcement by strengthening border control on importation of certain food items like rice. According to the International Trade Administration (as at 13th Oct 2021), the list of food items banned for importation to Nigeria:
Live or dead birds including frozen poultry
- Pork
- Beef
- Bird’s eggs, excluding hatching eggs
- Refined vegetable oils and fats (includes mayonnaise), but excluding refined linseed, castor and olive oil. Crude vegetable oil is NOT banned from importation.
- Cocoa butter, powder and cakes
- Spaghetti/noodles
Agriculture and the Economy
It is also worthy of mention that agriculture contributes immensely to the GDP of the country. The percentages of the GDP contributed by agriculture from Q3 in 2019 to Q3 of 2021 (statista.com) as follows:
This further highlights the importance of agriculture to the economy. It also shows how deserving it is of the attention by the government, not only in the aspect of revenue growth, but more so in the intentional acts of the government to enhance the smooth operations of the sector. This is especially important because most of these activities are best carried out in the rural areas, a grossly marginalised sector of society.
Challenges of the Agricultural Sector
There are many problems in agriculture, particularly subsitence farming, not limited to:
- Low technology,
- Limited financing,
- Poor access to markets,
- Poor land tenure system,
- High post-harvest losses,
- Low level of irrigation farming,
- Climate change and land degradation, and
- High production cost and poor distribution of inputs,
The Flooding Challenge
Some challenges are greater than others, with the impact of the climate being the sector’s greatest challenge. Since mid September 2022, intense flooding has claimed many farmlands, including lives and crops. According to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), over 300 people have been killed by the devastating flood of 2022 and thousands more have been displaced. The states reported to have been affected are Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Nasarawa, Rivers, Bayelsa, Kogi, and Jigawa. Several farmlands in these states have been wiped out by this flood. Farmers have lost their hard-cultivated crops, and by implication, the inflow of food items is affected. This can lead to food scarcity and increase the likelihood of famine. Also, the economy is going to be adversely affected because produce for sale and consumption, both locally and by way of export have been damaged.
The flood, as a result of increasing rain levels, was exacerbated by realease of excess water from the Lagdo Dam of Cameroon. While both countries to where to work together to control the water released from the dam, Nigeria never invested in the project thus futher constraining the issue. As part of the collaboration with Cameroon, Nigeria had the duty of controlling the water released from the dam in order to prevent flooding, however, Nigeria never contributed her own quota.
A Step in the Right Direction
This event further highlights the importance of the government playing its role in ensuring the effectiveness of the sector. There is a need for the government to recognise that various agricultural programmes and schemes organised for farmers are not enough to help the sector. Rather, adequate preparation for climate change by putting in place necessary structures to weather such a crisis is important in preventing disaster.
The health of the agricultural sector is indeed the health of a nation. The inputs of the government in increasing agricultural revenue in forms of funding, sensitization and prohibition of importation of certain food items will yield little change if natural disasters are not factored in and adequately prevented (climate adaptation and resilience).
