2020 SRP: Minister alerts farmers against early planting

The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Siriki has cautioned farmers across the country against early rushing into planting based on enormous rainstorm that the country will witness before the normal planting onset predicted by Nigerian Metrological Agency (NiMet).

The Minister said this yesterday at the year 2020 SRP release for economic planning in the country.  

While unveiling the SRP, Siriki advised farmers to become very inquisitive of weather forecast before going into year 2020 planting so as to avoid losses due to dry spell that would follow the enormous rainfall occasioned by climate change wave activity. He stressed the need for proactive extension services that would assist farmers in the application of moisture conservation techniques.

The minister said that  ‘’  before the establishment of the onset of the planting season over the various ecological zones, a couple of rainfall events are expected to occur which could be enormous and tend to give a false start of the season. Such rainfall event are not uncommon, however, their frequency seems to be on the rise, because this is due to climate change as well. Some forcing functions have been observed to be likely responsible and we will observe and keep Nigerians informed’’

He went further to say ‘’ the predicted 2020 onset of the growing season is expected to be ‘near-normal to earlier than normal in most parts of the country. The earliest onset date is  likely to occur on the 24th of February around the coastal zone of the south-south states while states like Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno are predicted to likely have their onset from 22nd June, 2020’’

On  cessation the Minister said that ‘’ the earliest  cessation day is the 26^th of September 2020, and is expected in states like Katsina and Northern part of Sokoto while the latest cessation date is 28^th December 2020 around the Niger Delta. Cessation dates are predicted to be relatively normal in most places except for few places where cessation dates are expected to be a little earlier or later than normal ’’

Other major features of the 2020 SRP are also highlighted below:

Length of the season

The length of the 2020 growing season is expected to be near-normal to longer than normal in most part of the country, spanning between 116 days in the extreme north and over 300 days in the south. Places in the middle belt of the country such as Benue, Kogi and Abuja are anticipated to have between 200 to 250 days in the 2020 growing season.

Annual Rainfall Amount

The country is expected to have rainfall amounts from 400mm in the north to over 3000mm in the south. Places in the extreme north such as Sokoto, Kastina, Yobe and Borno are expected to have the least rainfall amounts within the range of 400-800mm. Generally, the 2020 annual rainfall is predicted to be within the normal range for most places except for places around Kastina which are likely to have below normal rainfall amount.

The Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Prof. Sani Abubakar Mashi during the presentation also advised the farmers on the need to adopt risk management techniques like insurance cover, climate smart agriculture that would improve productivity saying  water conservation would help to  checkmate soil erosion, added  that the use of drought  tolerant seed varieties are also recommended in time like this. He therefore urged farmers to use the cessation period for land preparation.  

Speaking at the event Adamu Sakara a farmer from Yobe state, said the previous predictions have helped to improve the food production in the state saying that 235 farmers from his state benefitted from the NiMet information.

Adamu said that "The information NiMet gave us was very useful, we knew when to plant and apply fertilizer"

Similarly, Emiofor Okereke an Abia farmer and Oladoke Seyi, from Oyo state stated that NiMet had helped them in planning for the farming season last year.

Mr Seyi said farmers usually cultivate without caution but NiMet have introduced the right time for planting to get bumper harvest saying "NiMet should get across to other rural farmers in Nigeria especially in the Southern region’’