By Abdullahi Gambo
Farmers from across Borno State have now resorted to Climate Smart agriculture to boost food production as well as food Security.
The evident of this practice was as a result of my interactions with both the subsistence and mechanised Farmers who were in the farming system for decades and have realised bumper harvest, but began to encounter challenges due to glaring effects of Climate Change.
These are as a result of sporadic floods, drought due to unequal rainfall patterns, shrink in the Eco system and the usage of excessive chemical driven fertilizer in the farming.
Speaking on behalf Farmers, President Borno Agric Village Borno State, Allamin Umara Lawan said they have already adopted Climate Smart agriculture which goes hand in hand with the conventional agriculture and have supplemented the deficit arising from the climate related issues.
Allamin Umara Lawan added that they have already earmarked thousands of their Members who were into an intensive Climate Smart agriculture and provided them with a necessary inputs for harvest of both staple food and vegetables. These according to the Farmers have enhance their livelihood and income generation as well.
The President Borno Agric Village explained that they also got an interventions from the Borno State Government and other development Partners in their agricultural practices, and have fully utilised these interventions by coming up with the home grown technology and improvision of farming tools as well as varieties of seedlings which have improved their business and earning them a national awards at the agricultural exhibition ceremony.
State Project Coordinator FADAMA 3 NG Cares Borno State, Maina Mustapha Arjinoma said there was a paradigm shift in the whole farming system across Borno State as a result of the effects of Climate Change which led them to adaptation of a Climate Smart agricultural system.
Maina Mustapha Arjinoma said some of the measures they adopted was a distribution of Smart kits to the Farmers in form of drip irrigation for both net and green house, solar powered water pumps to replace generator driven water pumps to avoid emissions arising from the machines.
According to him, a total of one hundred thousand (100,000) Farmers have benefited the interventions from FADAMA 3 NG Cares Borno State in collaboration with World Food Programme (WFP) and World Bank.
Some of Farmers interviewed, Ya Shuwa Abubakar and Ibrahim Waziri have acknowledged the sustainability of Climate Smart agriculture for their livelihood and utilisation of some waste from the smart agric to feed some animals in their compounds.
Other Climate Smart practising agric Farmers testifies to have to break barriers of only rainy season farming which a times accompanied with flood, drought as a result of shortage in rainfall, intruding from the herders and so on.
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