Stakeholders in North Central states have decried the increasing impact of climate change on livelihood across the zone and called for collaborative efforts aimed at addressing the situation.
At an event organised by the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL), stakeholders agreed that climate change effect such land degradation occasion by incessant yearly flood, decreasing rainfall, deforestation among others have affected agricultural activities across the zone.
Our correspondent reports that agriculture is the main occupation of people in the area with the zone said to be contributing more than 30 percent of the country’s yearly yields.
The stakeholders which were drawn from Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Taraba and Benue states pointed out that climate change has further exacerbated the poverty situation in the zone as yearly outputs continue to decrease.
Speaking during a two day engagement meeting with stakeholders in Lafia, Nasarawa State, the national coordinator ACRESal Abdulhamid Umar suggested that the way out of the situation is to develop a sustainable resilience plan and holistic implementation of same.
To achieve this, he said there was need to constantly sensitise the people to implement sustainable landscapes management practices to target watershed and strengthen environmental plan for integrated climate resilience and maintaining smart agricultural practices
He described such practices to include conservation agriculture technologies including reduced tillage, crop rotations, and cover crops. Others, he pointed out include soil conservation practices and nutrient recharge strategies which can refill soil organic matter by giving a protective soil cover.
According to him, to comprehensively bring out the structures and mechanism for a robust and encompassing management plan, there is need for an engagement to hydrological areas in affected state for long term achievement.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Nasarawa State commissioner for environment and natural resources Mr. Kwanta Yakubu said the state government is readily available to key into such policies to increase implementation for sustainable landscapes management across the state.
He called on all stakeholders representing the state to bring to bear their wealth of experience and come up with a workable template and policies to address environmental challenges bedevilling the state.
Other stakeholders who spoke at the engagement acknowledge that implementation of the submissions at the event would ensure food security and improve the livelihood of the citizenry not only in the north central region but the entire country.
They explained that understanding the status of different environments and challenges as well as the status has made it easy for harmonization towards evolving plan and strategies for sustainable environment for agricultural activities
At the end of the engagement, participants cut across Taraba, Plateau and Nasarawa states came up with an encompassing catchment management plan document that will be in line with global best practices help the zone to address it’s environmental challenges.
