Agriculture, Food Security, Land Degradation, Forestry And Bio-Diversity

A variety of foods crops are produced in Nigeria, all dependent on rainfall, so that where rain is abundant (from the coast up to the Middle Belt, for example) crops dependent on rain are planted, and in drier parts of the country, crops that do not require much rain are cultivated. Food production on the whole has not kept pace with Nigeria’s production increase.

Climate Change phenomenon affects agriculture in a number of ways. For example, uncertainties in the onset of the farming season, due to changes in rainfall characteristics (early rains may not be sustained, and crops planted at their instance may become smothered by heat waves) can lead to an unusual sequence of crop planting and replanting which may result in food shortages due to harvest failure. Extreme weather events such as thunderstorms, heavy winds, and floods, devastate farmlands and can lead to crop failure. Pests and crop and diseases migrate in response to Climate Changes and variations (e.g. the tsetse fly has extended its range northward) and will potentially pose a threat to livestock in the drier northern areas. It is estimated that by 2100, Nigeria and other West African countries are likely to have agricultural losses of up to 4 % of GDP due to climate change (Mendelsohn, et al, 2000). Parts of the country that experienced soil erosion and operate rain-fed agriculture could have decline in agricultural yield of up to 50 % between 2000 – 2020 due to increasing impact of climate change (Agoumi, 2003; IPCC, 2007).