From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The Director General, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), Dr. Manzo Maigari has said that he lost 500 hectares of rice farm to this year’s flooding, stressing that if quantified in monetary term, it stands at N2 billion.
Dr. Maigari who is the former Commissioner of Agriculture & Forestry under governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna State, however noted that it has become imperative to engage and involve insurance companies in farming business in order to get compensated in the event of such incidents.
He spoke in an interview with newsmen during a workshop on Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies and Practice in line with Food Safety Standards and Grades, in Kaduna.
According to Dr. Maigari, “This is a regional workshop that brings together youths and women farmers and players in Agriculture business management with the aim of sensitising and educating them on the challenges of climate change as it affects farmers today across Africa and even across the world.
“The participants are drawn from across the whole North West. We are looking at 50-500 participants, we are targeting a minimum of 500 participants at this two days workshop.
“This initiative is 100 percent funded by Bill Gates Foundation with Nigerian business groups as collateral and with the federal ministry of Agriculture as partner as well as the Kaduna State government, and that is why you see the State Commissioner for Agriculture came to give an address at the workshop.
“It is a four years project and we are in the second year, so you can’t know the monetary value until you finish and do the compilation, before you get to the funding.
“However, I want to speak practically as an individual who had lost so much to flooding. I lost 500 hectares of rice farm to flooding this year, and not a single stand of the rice survived, and if you want to quantify it in terms of monetary value is not less than N2 billion. The rice was to be harvested, processed, packaged and branded into the market. All I have lost is 4000 hectares of rice, you know what that means if you multiple 500 by 8 and the N2 billion multiplied by 8 also”.
On what preventive measures have been put in place against subsequent flooding, the Agric expert said, “We need to see agriculture as a business so that farmers can engage and involve insurance companies for insurance cover so that when you lost your product to flooding, you get compensated by the insurance company.
“We also need to look at alternative to rain season farming. So if you do dry season farming, you won’t experience flooding. And we need to look for varieties of crops, rice that can survive flooding, stay under water for days without dying”.
Earlier, speaking on ‘Small Scale Climate Smart Crop Production’, Professor Emeka Daniel Oruonye, noted that the need to grow more food crops and increase the income of the small-scale farmers has become necessary in order to mitigate poverty and achieve food security has become very important.
“Especially in this pandemic era, stakeholders under the agricultural space must join hands in maximising our numerous endowments to ensure that the desired economic growth is achieved.
“The greatest challenges facing farmers today is how to meet the increasing food demand to meet population growth. Climate volatility, more frequent extreme weather events and temperature changes increasingly threaten the viability of food crop production,” the Professor of Geography from Taraba State University told participants.
Speaking on ‘Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technologies and Practice in line with Food Safety Standards and Grades, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pyrogenesys, Mr Simon Ighofose, harped on the importance of climate smart agriculture, and said the production of biofuels and bioenergy remain some of the advantages of CSA.
“Considering the fact that small scale farmers cultivate small land areas, usually less than two to five hectares, are not engaged in producing crops as competitors, nearly 72% of them live on less than $1.90 per day, thereby plunging most small scale farmers into the hole of poverty”. Mr. Ighofose said.