The Nigerian government, on Wednesday, urged stakeholders to collaborate in charting a clear pathway for building a robust, inclusive, and climate-resilient agricultural sector in Nigeria.
The stakeholders encompass farmers’ organisations, development partners, government agencies, private sector players, and others.
Ibrahim Tanimu, Director of Planning and Policy Coordination at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), provided the advice at the Federal/International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Best Practice Workshop in Abuja.
IFAD organised the workshop in collaboration with FMAFS, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ), the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, among others.
The workshop is on public-private partnership for Climate Information Services (CIS) and Consultation on the Climate-Smart Agribusiness Partnership for Resilience Project (CSAPR).
Represented by Aliyu Agwai, Deputy Director, Research and Statistics in the ministry, Tanimu said the project marked a significant milestone in the collective efforts to safeguard Nigeria’s food systems against the growing threats of climate change.
He urged stakeholders to leverage best practices on climate-smart agribusiness partnerships to transform the nation’s food system and ensure economic growth. He stated that stakeholders’ collaboration in CSAPR underscored shared commitment to building resilience, enhancing productivity, and ensuring food security for millions of Nigerians.
He added that consultations on the CSAPR project would provide a unique opportunity to shape its design and ensure strong ownership among all stakeholders. According to him, climate change poses one of the greatest challenges to agricultural development in our country and across Africa.
“Erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, and extreme weather events increasingly undermine farmers’ livelihoods, food security, and rural economies. In response, the Federal Government under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu has prioritised climate-resilient agriculture as a critical pillar of national development.
“This commitment is reflected in key policies and frameworks such as the National Agriculture Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP), the CAADP Kampala Declaration, and Nigeria’s Food Systems Transformation Pathways.
“These frameworks serve as a compass guiding us toward a more resilient, productive, and inclusive agricultural sector,” he stated.
The director also explained that the best practice workshop and the consultations on the CSAPR project were designed to build a common understanding of global and regional best practices on PPP for climate information services.
He said it was to identify opportunities for leveraging the private sector to expand and scale up access to climate information for smallholder farmers and strengthen national ownership. He further said that the project was to secure strategic recommendations for the finalisation and successful implementation of the project.
“CSAPR project will be integrated within the framework of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ)—a flagship initiative that is transforming agricultural value chains, promoting rural industrialisation, and creating opportunities for youth and women.
“This integration will ensure that climate-smart practices are embedded at the heart of Nigeria’s agricultural transformation agenda. This workshop is an opportunity to lay the foundation for a resilient agricultural future for Nigeria.
“By harnessing PPPs, scaling up climate information services and embedding climate-smart practices within our agro-industrial hubs, we can empower our farmers, strengthen our food systems, and drive sustainable economic growth,” he said.
Tanimu expressed the ministry’s appreciation to IFAD for its unwavering commitment to Nigeria’s agricultural and rural transformation agenda as well as its leadership in promoting climate resilience globally.
Similarly, Jack Rossiter, Senior Technical Specialist at IFAD, noted that the global food and agriculture system is under mounting pressure from climate change.
Rossiter specifically stated that rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and prolonged droughts, among other factors, were undermining productivity and threatening food security worldwide.
According to him, smallholder farmers who cultivate one-third of the world’s food and up to 80 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa are the most affected. He said that access to CIS was therefore indispensable in safeguarding yields, stabilising incomes and building resilience.
“Yet fewer than 40 per cent of communities in developing countries have effective multi-hazard early warning systems, and this is in spite of evidence that every dollar invested in such systems yields 10 dollars in avoided losses.
“A 24-hour warning can reduce ensuing damage by 30 per cent, and in Africa, where agriculture employs over 60 per cent of the workforce, the urgency is especially acute. The sector is highly climate-sensitive, with declining soil productivity, water stress and climate-induced pest outbreaks compounding vulnerabilities,” he said.
Rossiter said that for Nigeria, embedding CIS into agricultural value chains could help input suppliers align seed and fertiliser distribution with seasonal forecasts, support insurers and financial institutions in designing climate-induced products, among other benefits.
