The Federal Government of Nigeria and a non-governmental organization, Self Help Africa, have partnered to reduce black carbon emissions by 83 per cent and methane emissions by 61 per cent by 2030. The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Temitope Fashedemi, disclosed this at a workshop on the Abatement of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants in the Nigerian Agricultural Sector project on Thursday in Abuja. The workshop was organised by the ministry in collaboration with Self Help Africa, and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. Fashedemi said Nigeria was one of the few countries to highlight its commitment to reduce SLCP.
According to the permanent secretary, who was represented by the Director, Agricultural Lands and Climate Change Management Services, Mr Osadiya Olanipekun, said it was part of efforts to mitigate the effect of Climate Change in the country. He said, “The project is to help reduce short lived carbon emission from agricultural waste. “This will help to increase the adaptive capacity of farmers with the replacement of open field burning of agricultural waste with clean alternatives like conservation agriculture, and briquette making among others.”
On her part, the Country Director, Self Help Africa, Nigeria, Mrs Joy Aderele, said SLCPs was an 18-month pilot programme within which they are to work with 500 farmers to reduce open burning. She said that the Gboko Local Government Area in Benue State would be used as a pilot to demonstrate successful approaches to reducing open field burning.
Aderele explained that the 500 farmers would be formed into 20 groups of 25 farmers each, selected from communities in Gboko.
The country director said that other participants in the project included 45 agricultural extension officers across the geo-political zones in the country, adding that the projects would facilitate strategic stakeholders’ engagement and capacity building of government agricultural extension officers and farmers. She further said the programme would enable the farmers and the extension agents to use best practices approaches to reduce alternatives to open field burning while promoting Climate Smart Agriculture. According to her, one of the objectives of the SLCPs is to contribute towards Nigeria’s goals of Low Carbon Development and emissions reduction as set out in the Nationally Determined Contribution document. She added, “The project will contribute to achieving the goals of Nigeria’s 2019 National Action Plan to Reduce SLCPs. “This aims to reduce black carbon emissions by 83 per cent and methane emissions by 61 per cent by 2030.”
