Nigeria among top 10 Climate-Vulnerable nations, says ARCN boss

 

Nigeria has been ranked among the ten most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, according to recent global climate risk assessments measuring exposure to extreme weather events and natural hazards. The ranking has renewed concerns over the country’s agricultural sustainability, rural livelihoods, and long-term food security.

The development was highlighted in a goodwill message delivered by the Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Dr. Adamu Abubakar Dabban, during the 2026 Annual Research Review and Planning Meeting and Zonal REFILS Workshop held at the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U.), Samaru, Zaria.

Dr. Dabban ably represented by Hajara Buba Audu said Nigeria’s growing vulnerability to climate change poses a serious threat to agricultural development and national food systems, stressing the need for urgent and coordinated action to strengthen resilience in the sector.

The assessment points to Nigeria’s increasing exposure to climate shocks, including devastating floods, prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and advancing desertification. These environmental pressures are already disrupting farming activities across several regions and reducing overall agricultural productivity.

Speaking on the issue National Coordinator of Young Farmers in Nigeria ( YoFin) Abdul Basit Olatunji disclosed that he has witnessed how rapidly our agricultural landscape is shifting. Young farmers, who should be our greatest asset, now face existential threats from unpredictable rains, rising temperatures, and degraded soils. The question is how longer weather climate change will affect agriculture?

According to him "In  some part of the country like Kwara State, the changes are unmistakable. The rainy season no longer arrives predictably. Farmers who once knew exactly when to plant now watch the skies anxiously, gambling on timing they cannot predict when rains come to cause erosion rather than nourishing crops. The dry season stretches longer, wilting crops before harvest.

Soil that was fertile for generations has become depleted and hardened. Young farmers inherit degraded land and declining yields despite increased labor.

Across the country, the pattern repeats with different urgency. In the North, desertification advances southward, reclaiming farmland. In the South, cocoa and rubber farmers watch crops weaken as temperatures rise and pests multiply. The Lake Chad region faces an existential water crisis".

Abdul stressed that when agriculture fails, food security collapses. As young farmers produce less, Nigeria's self-sufficiency weakens. We become dependent on imports, draining foreign currency and leaving us vulnerable to global price shocks.

The poorest Nigerians suffer first. Rising food prices devastate households spending 60-80 percent of income on food. Hunger spreads not because food cannot be grown, but because traditional farming methods are now obsolete.

Nigeria's climate vulnerability is not inevitable tragedy, it is a call to action. Our government, development partners, and private sector must prioritize agricultural adaptation with urgency.

Young farmers are no victims. We are innovators ready to solve this problem. Give us training, information, and support, and we will secure Nigeria's food future. The time for incremental action has passed. We must act now. He said.

A close person to the Ministry who pleaded  anonymous emphasize that addressing Nigeria’s climate vulnerability will require coordinated action from government, the private sector, research institutions, and farming communities. He warned that fragmented interventions will not be sufficient to meet the scale of the challenge.