Meteorological Agency Warns Farmers To Leave River Bank Due To Climate Change
Following the recent climate emergency due to incessant rainfall witnessed in the year 2022, a Chief Meteorologist with Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Onyilo Desmond, has advised farmers especially those by the river banks to immediately harvest their farm produce as soon as possible. He stated this in Ilorin during a workshop for stakeholders in the Agricultural sector. The programme was organized by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), in conjunction with Oxfam, NiMet and Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) with a goal to train farmers in the state on the need to consider climate change in their farming activities, engage in agricultural practices that are beneficial which will not lead to loss of their input and resources used in starting up their agricultural production. According to him, farmers should harvest whatever is left of their farm produce and leave the river banks if their farms have been inundated. He added that farmers whose farms have not been inundated should harvest immediately. The Programme Officer, HEDA Resource Center, Shiro Olawale Oreoluwa while holding a mid-season interaction with smallholder farmers was optimistic that farmers and agricultural extension agents will find it easier to plan and make the best decisions while working with agro-meteorological data from relevant agencies to build early warning sign systems and a robust system for the generation and utilization of climate information into food systems.
