The Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMARD) on provision of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in ten states of the country for more agricultural productivity.
This was contained in a press statement signed and made available by the General Manager (GM), Public Relation (PR) of the NiMet, Mallam Muntari Yufus Ibrahim yesterday.
The statement had the Director-General (DG)/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NiMet Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu at the signing ceremony saying " Today is a very happy day for us in NiMet because in all our collaborations and partnerships, this one with the Ministry of Agriculture is paramount"
Noting that collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture has been going on in different fora at different platforms under some of the projects that reports directly to the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural development.
Describing the event as historical, Prof. Matazu said "One of our major users/ clients in the country are the peasant farmers who constitute a very large portion of the occupation stratum of this country and which require weather and climate information as input in addition to other inputs that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture provides.
The statement disclosed that from surveys conducted and interactions, like any average African Farmer, Nigerian Farmers are knowledgeable and Intelligent, added they can guess weather and climate with fifty-fifty precision on their own.
It was stated further that what NiMet does is to increase the precision by scientific evidence and data information. This precision is increased by more than 90 per cent, stressed that it has been established that just by adopting weather and climate information in agriculture, yield is increased by as high as 40 percent and risk is reduced by more than 90 per cent.
Also in the press release, the Permanent Secretary (PS), FMARD, Dr. Ernest Afolabi Umakhike observed that the signing of the MoU is gratifying, adding that timely weather information will boost the productivity of farmers, and reduce losses occasioned by adverse weather conditions.
He noted that over the years, NiMet Seasonal Climate Prediction, SCP, has helped to shape agriculture in Nigeria thereby thanking the NiMet DG for finding time to sign the MOU as he hoped to see in near future weather forecast on farmers' phones.
One cannot but fill fulfilled by this good news that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the provision of real time climate information advisory services to Nigerian farmers. The foundation of this Climate Smart Agricultural legacy was laid in 2017 when the FGN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) assisted Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (CASP) signed an MoU with NiMet to provide timely annual Seasonal Rainfall Predictions in the 7 front line States of Borno,Yobe,Jigawa, Katsina,Zamfara, Sokoto & Kebbi. The positive feedback on the SRP products from the farmers and herdsmen in the CASP States for 5 years provided the necessary boost that sustained the NiMet-CASP collaboration.
ReplyDeleteIt is expected that the recently signed MoU by FMARD and NiMet will go full circle for all Nigerian farmers and herdsmen to have access to real time Climate Smart Agricultural information advisory services.