Environmentalist proffers ways to reduce climate change effects on food security

An environmental advocacy expert, Mrs Temitope Okunnu, has highlighted ways of mitigating the climate-change effects on Nigeria’s attainment of food security.

Okunnu, the founder of Foundation for a Better Environment (FABE foundation), made the call in an interview with the News men on Thursday in Lagos.

The environmentalist noted that the prospects for addressing the impact of climate change effects on food security were promising with proper implementation.

“The prospects in addressing climate change effects on food production this year are promising because the advancement in technology, policy shifts, global cooperation, and intentional methods that we have adopted, particularly in Lagos State in tackling climate change effects.

“However, these gains will depend on the government’s commitment to implementing very bold mitigation methods. I would say my number one should be the promotion of climate smart agriculture.

“The government should support adoption of flood-resistant crops because annual flooding in the country is destroying crop cultivation.

“For example, the upsurge in the price of onions we are currently facing. Onion is very expensive due to the humidity in the northern regions, causing loss onion farm beds,” the environmentalist said.

Okunnu also reiterated the importance of leveraging on technological innovations in the agric. space to boost crop production locally.

“We only need to maybe improve on more access to more like farm management software, so that we are able to also leverage digital tools for monitoring our weather and have real time data collection.

“We also need to ensure that our afforestation programmes are super this year. Let us restore so many degraded communities, degraded land and promote more agroforestry. There are a lot of trees that are already going into extinction and these trees should be replanted.

“So, we can begin to train local farmers in the adoption of conservation, intercropping or integrated pest management.

“We also need to improve our water supply in crop cultivation and less dependence on rain-fed agriculture to improve food security in the country.

“Let us develop irrigation systems to reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture begin rain harvesting. The prevalence of floods is due to extended rain, so, let us start harvesting water from rains for irrigation,” Okunnu said.

She also emphasised the need to increase the cultivation of cover crops to protect the farmlands from environmental degradation due to climate change effects.

“To prevent degradation of our farm lands, farmers should cultivate more cover crops.

“Let us begin to incentivise organic farming with the adoption of compost to enhance our soil fertility. This cannot be overemphasised to ensure increased productivity and the attainment of food security.

“Local food markets produce enough organic wastes that can be transformed into compost to promote organic farming, while tackling environmental pollution,” she said.