Dr Debisi Araba, Director, Africa Region, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) says Nigerians should embrace agriculture as a tool for development.
Araba, who gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja, said this would help the country achieve better results in the sector.
“The first thing I want to reiterate is that agriculture is a business, it’s not a development project. And because it is a business, we need to ensure that this business thrives in a low risk environment.
“Insurance forms part of tools that we can reduce risk perception in the agriculture sector. At CIAT, we have been working on climate policy hubs.
“The hubs started in Asia and we brought it to Africa in collaboration with the Africa Development Bank, CIAT and of course, partner institution as well as the research programme on Climate Change in Agriculture and Food Security (CGARS) which cut across all the 15 centres of the CGARS.
“We have been working to ensure that the science and knowledge that we produce through research can influence the agriculture policy in all the countries in Africa.
“One of the ways we are doing this in Nigeria specifically is through national agriculture resilience framework.
“This insurance roadmap document will form part of the revised edition of the national agricultural resilience framework.
“And this framework is Nigeria’s roadmap and strategy to build resilience in agricultural sector.’’
The agric expert noted that climate risk such as drought that affected the Northern part of Nigeria in 2013, had led to farmers being reluctant to invest in their farms.
Araba said farmers in Nigeria had limited access to credit and remained trapped in a low-income productivity of farm produce.
According to him, it is imperative for the country to build a robust resilience framework against the potential shocks and stress posed by climate change in the agric sector. (NAN)
