Dr Andrew Onwuemele, of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), said this on Tuesday, at the conference hall of the University of Ibadan, while delivering a NISER monthly lecture entitled ‘Rural poverty reduction under a changing climate: Is agriculture still the key in Nigeria?’
According to him, agriculture in Nigeria, due to poor infrastructure and lack of technology, was highly dependent on climatic parametres such as rainfall, therefore, vulnerable.
“Between 1941 and 2000, annual rainfall decreased by 2-8mm across most parts of the country, but decreased by 2-4mm a few places like Port Harcourt. There was evidence of longterm temperature increase in most parts of the country. The main exception was in the Jos area, where a slight cooling was recorded.
“While agricultural sector is fraught with numerous constraints, the emerging changes in climatic conditions complicated the constraints, therefore, raising doubt about the ability of the agricultural sector to reduce poverty in Nigeria,” Onwuemele.
Admitting that agriculture has a major role in rural poverty reduction due to large number of the rural poor engaged in it, he suggested that the government should “reduce climate agricultural shocks, share and utilise climate change information among stakeholders, adapt climate sensitive agricultural systems and address other constraints to agricultural productivity in Nigeria.”
He also recommended that the government should explore other avenues, coupled with agriculture, to effectively tackle rural poverty in the country.
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