WMC Climate

Climate Change Puts the Lives of Nigerian Farmers at Risk

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When the rains came in January 2020, and again in February (albeit in less of a deluge), Foluke Afolabi was concerned about her farm in Ikorodu, in Nigeria’s southwestern Lagos State.

Usually, local farmers plant their crops in a rainy season that begins in April and ends in October. In 2020, Afolabi stuck to the normal rainfall patterns she was used to, planting cassava and corn that April only to have intermittent and inadequate rain.

The dry spell would have killed her corn crops had she not resorted to irrigation in conjunction with nearby farmers. Still, the harvest was much smaller than she’danticipated.

“The yield was poor compared to the previous year,” said Afolabi. “I could only hope that the cassava would do well and make up for the losses from the corn.”

It’s now normal for farmers to come together and arrange for mutual irrigation of farms whenever the rains fail. While local farmers like Afolabi depend on manual irrigation, where water is sourced from streams or wells, larger farms use automated overhead sprinklers and drip irrigation systems which cover a wider area of crops.

According to the Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s “State of Climate in Nigeria 2020” report, “the annual break between the first and second rainy season of southwest of Nigeria witnessed an unusual extension in 2020,” leading to major agricultural losses.

The impact of climate change is becoming increasingly more glaring across Africa — from locust outbreaks to droughts to flooding and changes in rainfall patterns and distribution — especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where about 90 percent of people depend on rain-fed farming.

In Nigeria, agriculture is a time-bound activity. Planting is coordinated withthe wet and dry seasons. But in 2020, in addition to the long spells of drought, Nigerians were hit with the coronavirus, and the government imposed strict, countrywide lockdowns near the start of the planting season. Farmers were barred from working because they were not considered “essential workers,” delaying planting and impacting yields that sustain their livelihoods.

Now those livelihoods are at serious risk.

Climate-induced inflation

Olaolu Iyabo cares for herself and her children by selling processed corn and other common staples in Nigeria. She lives close to the largest food market in Lagos, known as Mile 12 Market, where she buys grains like corn, sorghum, and millet to sell. Recently, though, her business has taken a nosedive. Since coronavirus lockdowns began easing in May 2020 — the government wanted to combat the pandemic’s adverse effects on the country’s economy — prices for the grains Iyabo buys have risen astronomically (some have nearly doubled), far beyond what she can afford.

“The traders in the market complain that supplies are lesser than before, and more expensive,” she said.

In turn, Iyabo has had to raise her prices. “My customers are complaining,” she said. “Some have bought less than usual. This has affected my profits.”

As of January, Nigeria’s inflation on food was at its highest in three years, Bloomberg reported in December 2020. While the pandemic and insecurity within the country have been major contributing factors, climate change-induced droughts and flooding have played3 an equally significant role in the change. Some 90 percent of crops in Kebbi State, in northern Nigeria, where about one-quarter of Nigeria’s domestic rice is grown, were destroyed by floods last season.

How to survive “the new normal”

The Nigerian Meteorological has predicted that dry spells, known as August breaks, would last for about two to three weeks from June to July in 2021.

“We may likely witness the same weather condition we witnessed last year, but more important is the likelihood of dry spells, which will be greater, and a larger number of places will be more affected,” said Abubakar Mashi, the agency’s director-general.

In March, the United Nations put Nigeria at the top of a list of “hunger hot spots” around the world, alongside Yemen and South Sudan.

Researchers are constantly seeking innovative ways to help farmers with the challenges created by climate change. More farmers now practice mixed cropping, the practice of planting different crops together, said Eniola Oyedeji of the National Horticultural Research Institute in Ibadan, in western Nigeria. Mixed cropping was meant to boost soil fertility in the past because crops were selected by their nutritional value. Now, it is also done as a form of insurance against harvest losses.

“There are drought-resistant varieties of crops that have been developed, and these are made available to farmers,” Oyedeji said.“When such varieties are planted, they’ll have a better chance of survival when rains don’t come as expected, and would reduce the risk of losses to the farmers.”

Afolabi continues to farm in Ikorodu — it is her major source of income — but she hopes that aid is on its way.

“I hope that the government will support us more now, especially because of all the uncertainties and losses we have had,” she said. “If they could give us more access to credit facilities and more technical support, we will be able to improve our output.”

She’s really just asking for the basics: “Giving us information on what to do on the farm with all the changes in weather will help us a lot.”


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