Mr Temitope Fashedemi, Permanent
Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, disclosed this at
a workshop on the Abatement of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) in the
Nigerian Agricultural Sector project yesterday in Abuja.
The inception workshop was
organised by the ministry in
collaboration with Self Help Africa, and the Climate and Clean Air
Coalition (CCAC).
Fashedemi said Nigeria was one of
the few countries to highlight its commitment to reduce SLCP.
The permanent secretary, who was
represented by Mr Osadiya Olanipekun, the Director, Agricultural Lands and
Climate Change Management Services, said it was part of the efforts to mitigate
the effect of Climate Change in the country.
“The project (SLCP) is to help
reduce short lived carbon emission from agricultural waste. This will help to
increase the adaptive capacity of farmers with the replacement of open field
burning of agricultural waste with clean alternatives like conservation
agriculture, and briquette making among others,’’ he said.
Earlier, Mrs Joy Aderele, the
Country Director, Self Help Africa, Nigeria, said SLCPs was an 18 Month pilot
programme to work with 500 farmers to reduce open burning.
Aderele said Gboko Local
Government Area in Benue would be used as a pilot to demonstrate successful
approaches to reducing open field burning.
She explained the 500
farmers would be formed into 20 groups of 25 farmers each, selected from
communities in Gboko Local Government Area.
Aderele said other
participants in the project included 45 agricultural extension officers across
the geo- political zones in the country.
She said the projects would
facilitate strategic stakeholders’ engagement and capacity building of
government agricultural extension officers and farmers.
Aderele said it was to enable the farmers and the extension agents use best practices approaches to reduce the alternatives to open field burning while promoting Climate Smart Agriculture.
She said that one of the
objectives of the SLCPs was to contribute towards Nigeria’s goals of Low Carbon
Development and emissions reduction promote as set out in Nationally Determined
Contribution (NDC) document.
“The project will contribute to
achieving the goals of Nigeria’s 2019 National Action Plan to Reduce SLCPs.
“This aims to reduce black carbon
emissions by 83 per cent and methane emissions by 61 per cent by 2030,” she
said.
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