Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has called for the inclusion of agroecology in the policy of climate change in Nigeria.

The organisation’s Programme Manager, Joyce Brown, said in a statement that the inclusion of agroecology in the country’s climate change policy would help to reduce climate change-related problems.

According to her, research has shown that agriculture and agrarian reforms rooted in agro-ecological practice and principles help cool the planet and ensure climate resilience.

‘This is what small-scale farmers and producers have been calling and defending for many millennia’, she said.

‘Politics, poor implementation and follow-up are some of the factors standing in the way of a transition to agroecology’.

The devastating effects of climate change such as severe droughts, floods, reduced agricultural yields, sea-level rise and other climate-related disasters are on the rise in Africa, including Nigeria.

In Nigeria and several other countries in Africa, where the agricultural production system is predominantly dependent on rain, more than 60 percent of essential foods are produced from rain-fed agriculture. This leaves the agriculture sector very susceptible to climate change.

In 2019, the National Emergency Management Agency revealed that floods had displaced approximately 1.9 million Nigerians.

A 2022 report by the Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD) shows that climate change is reducing crop yields, the nutritional quality of major cereals, and lowering livestock productivity in Nigeria.

Due to the desertification and water depletion in the northern part of Nigeria, nomadic herdsmen are now shifting towards the south of the country in search of grazing fields and water for their animals, resulting in violent conflict with crop farmers in the south.

Photo source: Lirneasia