Climate Change: Niger urges farmers to adapt as rainfall pattern shifts

The Niger State Government has urged farmers to follow climate-smart practices, including the usage of drought-resistant seeds and staggered planting, arsenic changing rainfall patterns proceed to endanger cultivation production.

Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Matthew Ahmed, gave the proposal astatine a collaborative gathering involving the authorities Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, the Federal Government, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) and farmers successful Minna.

Ahmed said the unusually dense rainfall recorded successful caller weeks, contempt the anticipation of reduced rainfall towards the extremity of the rainy season, was grounds of changing upwind patterns.

He urged farmers to see drought-resistant harvest varieties, noting that immoderate maize varieties tin past adust spells of up to 40 days and retrieve erstwhile rainfall resumes.

The Permanent Secretary besides advised farmers to stagger planting by dividing their farmland into sections and planting astatine antithetic times to trim losses from drought, excessive rainfall and pests.

He said farmers could besides usage upwind accusation platforms to entree forecasts and program their farming activities.

Director of Climate Change, Niger State Ministry of Environme...