By Mercy Omoike
An agriculture expert, Prof. Tunji Iyiola-Tunji, has called for the cultivation of flood-resistant crops and all-year-round farming to reduce the impact of flooding on farm produce.
Iyiola-Tunji, a fellow at the National Agriculture Extension Research Liaison Service (NAERLS), said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
He stressed the need to embrace measures to reduce flood impacts on food security because flood could not be stopped from occurring.
“One of the measures proposed by NAERLS Flood Assessment in 2022 was that there should be consistent crop cultivation all-year-round.
“All year-round farming can help reduce the negative impacts of flood on food security.
“The flood cannot be stopped entirely because of NiMET’s predictions; there will be a heavy flood in 2023 just like we had in 2022.
“Continuous farming throughout the year has to be initiated by all the three tiers of government as the rains intensify.
“It is important to elaborate that after the floods have subsided farmers can still go ahead and cultivate crops that can survive the dry season.
“Planting season should not be limited to the rainy season alone,” Iyiola-Tunji told NAN.
Iyiola-Tunji said that cultivating flood-resistant crops could also help prevent massive crop loss during flooding.
He called on governments at all levels to get farmers equipped.
Iyiola-Tunji, however, said that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) had started preparing to reduce the flood’s negative effects.
“Another measure is to cultivate new varieties of crops that can withstand floods.
“There is a need for us to promote the cultivation of flood-resistant crops, especially in flood-prone areas.
“There are crops such as maize and rice that agric-technology has helped develop that are flood resistant.
“For example, there are rice varieties developed by the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) in Badeggi, Bida Niger State that are flood resistant.
“They have improved a variety of rice that is flood-resistant. We can ask farmers to access the variety from the NCRI.
“FMARD is also doing a lot to provide dry season crop cultivation facilities.
“Measures are on the ground by the Federal Government to ensure that the effects of the flood are reduced,” he said. (NAN)
