September 14, 2022
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the U.S. on Tuesday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate.
The AIM for climate which is a joint initiative by the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, seeks to address climate change and global hunger by uniting participants to significantly increase investment in, and other support for, climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation over five years (2021 to 2025).
Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, said that food security was both a fundamental objective and expected outcome of development policies in Nigeria.
“Food security is currently both a fundamental objective and an expected outcome of development policies in Nigeria; as the country currently faces a challenge in nutrition requirements,” he said.
Abubakar said that the AIMS for climate objectives were in line with the objective of the Ministry of Agriculture which is contained in the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) policy document.
“To show the importance of the sector, agriculture is one of the five sectors selected to implement Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
“The sector by 2030 is expected to achieve potential Green House Gas (GHG) emissions reduction by 74 million tonnes (NDC implementation action plan for the agricultural sector) through Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and reforestation measures,” he said.
He said the development of organic farming and promotion of organic manure composting for farmers was one of the CSA activities implemented by the ministry.
The Minister also made it known that the Ministry has been able to embark on CSA activities, which included establishment of Pilot Demonstration on Agroforestry, and Farmers’ Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) .
“Also, Conversation for Agriculture for Improved Food Security and Livelihood,” he said.
Abubakar, asked for US intervention to assist the Nigerian agricultural sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the distribution of biofortified drought and flood tolerance seeds, and others.
The minister said there was need for intervention in agricultural GHG estimation and accounting at national and sub-national levels for adequate mitigation planning.
Earlier, the US Special Envoy on Climate Change, John Kerry, expressed concern over the devastating effects of climate change, which Nigeria is also facing in the agricultural sector and others.
He said something needed to be done to mitigate the impact which necessitated AIM climate in US.
“The AIM for climate is innovation mission for Climate, it is Initiative we started in the United States with the United Arab Emirates.
“In 2023, the United States will host the climate ministerial, that is next spring, and we are going to be proud to invite Nigeria to be there taking part in that meeting.
“And we are very happy to have the leadership of Nigeria at the table in Africa and globally, as AIM for Climate continues to grow and define itself.
“So we think this really exciting work ahead of us. We welcome the partnership of Nigeria in the separate.
“Thank you for being ready to sign this agreement and we look forward to working with you,” he said.(NAN)
