Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal has disclosed that the Federal Government has invested in climate-smart agriculture to enhance food production in the country.
He was speaking at a high-level event on ‘Partnering to Scale up Climate Actions in Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations – Zooming in on Food Security’, which was held in the Embassy of UAE in Rome. The administration believes that the step would also promote agro-forestry and conservation agriculture. This is expected to arrest the challenges posed by climate change and its impacts on food security.
Lawal said, “We are investing in climate-smart agriculture in order to enhance the resilience of our food systems as well as promote practices such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture and the use of drought-resistant crop varieties.” He, however, did not state how much Nigeria has invested in financial terms in the innovation that aims to improve food production while conserving natural resources.
The minister simply said Nigeria is taking concerted steps towards addressing climate change and its impacts on food security. Several policy frameworks like the National Climate Change Policy, the revised National Determined Contribution (NDC), National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change and Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021, have been adopted by Nigeria to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Nigeria has also been engaging with international partners to mobilise resources and expertise against fallouts of climate change. The minister said the partnerships have enabled Nigeria to implement projects that enhance community resilience such as the Great Green Wall initiative which is aimed at combating desertification and restoring degraded lands across the Sahel region, noting that a lot of work is still required to tackle these challenges.
He called on the international community to fulfil their commitments to climate financing, particularly for fragile and conflict-affected states. Financial support, the minister stressed, is crucial for implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies, building resilient infrastructure and ensuring that vulnerable communities are not left behind.