From Esther Akaa
The Nasarawa State Agricultural Development Programme ( NADP) is to partner the Nasarawa State Network on Environment and Climate Justice (NASNECJ) to address climate change issues in the state.
The Programme Manager of NADP, Mr Emmanuel Alanana stated this on Tuesday when members of NASNECJ paid him an advocacy visit in Lafia, Nasarawa State capital.
Alanana explained that the mandate of NADP was to improve the livelihoods of small holder farmers by providing unified extension system in both livestock and crop production geared towards improving the small holder farmers and food productivity in the state.
He assured of his commitment to collaborate with the group towards addressing the challenges of small holder farmers, especially as they were facing issues of climate change that was impacting negatively on them.
” The effect of climate change is real and the way forward for our rural farmers depend on the alternatives we have to take, be it agroforestry or other new techniques of farming to address these issues.
” We need to change our attitudes and policies to agriculture in Nigeria to ensure food security in the country. This is because of our increasing population and the need to achieve food security in the country,” he said.
Alanana assured the group of his support and called on them to provide technical support in the area of extension services as well as food and nutrition towards boosting productivity in the state.
He, therefore called on stakeholders in the agricultural sector to work together to address climate change effects and ensure food security in the country at large.
On his part, the Chairman of NASNECJ, Mr Emmanuel Okolo, said the essence of the visit was to advocate for climate justice and support small scale farmers in the area of agricultural development to increase yields.
” We want to collaborate and also partner with this agency to see how we can promote Climate Smart Agriculture in which we know that the mandate of the organisation is being covered, more especially looking at the track records that this agency have done in ensuring that they build the capacity of rural farmers and small scale farmers, capacity as well as support them with seedlings and other farm inputs that will increase yields, ” he said .
He, therefore commended the agency for promoting agricultural productivity and urged them to do more.
In their separate remarks, some members of the group, Rejoice Asoloko, Hannah Envoh and Hadiza Attah both commended the leadership of the agency for including women in their programmes.
They all pledged their commitment to sustaining the advocacy on climate justice to ensure a green economy.