About 70 million subsistence farmers have started receiving guidance from the Nigeria Meteorological Agency to achieve bountiful harvests through data-guided farming in the country, NiMet announced on Thursday.
The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Prof Charles Anosike, disclosed this during a partnership meeting with the American-based Global Green Development Group, and NOAH ReGen.
The partnership is to collaborate on the Jatropha-To-Biofuel programme in Nigeria.
The NiMet CEO said the partnership is in line with the mandate of the agency to observe and monitor the atmospheric condition in Nigeria, analyse the data, and generate and disseminate forecasts which contribute to socio-economic development.
Speaking at the meeting held at the headquarters of NiMet in Abuja, Anosike said “NiMet has a wide ecosystem of climate change actors and partners. Also, we do a lot of work with over 70 million subsistence farmers in Nigeria. We have begun the dissemination of our seasonal climate prediction to these farmers and other end users.
“We can partner by sharing our climate and weather data to support your Jatropha-To-Biofuel programme.”
He further said the partnership will enable the parties to consistently respond to climate disasters.
The Chief Executive Officer of Global Green Development Group, Mary Flowers, said for the project to succeed in Nigeria, it requires NiMet’s data.
“We need to join forces as data will drive everything. We need your science and climate data which have existed for over 100 years. NiMet is the most important agency in what we are planning to do. With your data, we can go to the market much quicker.”
The Chief Executive Officer of NOAH ReGen, Frederic Degret, said the Jatropha-To-Biofuel programme meets the expectations of the Re’Planet Ecosystem launched by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
“The Re’Planet Ecosystem is a game changer toolkit and global blended financial platform dedicated to nature-based assets and carbon credits which enable nations to structure debt for nature swap and to unlock, value and monetise their highest potential of NBACCs including blue carbon”.