1. CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA by IBRAHIM, Yusuf El-Ladan Department of Geography, Umaru Musa Yar-adua University, Katsina – Nigeria
A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE SCIENTIFIC SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POSSIBLE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AFRICA, ORGANIZED BY THE INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN RESEARCH AND STUDIES, CAIRO UNIVERSITY, CAIRO, EGYPT.
MAY, 18TH – 20TH 2014

2. Abstract:
In the recent past, Nigeria, and indeed Africa, has been bedeviled by myriad of challenges, among them, economic crunches, political uprisings and social unrests. All of these are serious, but the most serious challenge facing Nigeria today, which if tackled well can solve virtually all its problems, and which the political elites seems to be dumb about, is the problem of climate change. Climate change is already beginning to transform life on earth. In Nigeria, and indeed all over the globe, seasons are shifting, temperatures are rising, landscapes are changing and sea levels are soaring. Among the consequences of climate change are that, it could potentially interrupt progress toward nations without hunger, and a hungry population is a volatile population. This paper reviewed the current trends of climate change in Nigeria, including the evidences; its effects on food security in the country; its consequences vis-a-vis the current attitudes of the country’s populace including the farming families, policy makers, academia and the likes. Finally, some recommendations were proffered with a view to relieving the negative impacts of climate change and increasing the harvests of the poor farming families in the country.
Keywords: Climate change; Food security

3. Definition/Concept
“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising average sea level.”
IPCC, (2007)

4. Causes
“Something fundamental happened on this planet around the year 1750AD, that thing is INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, which leads to the invention of machines that simplified the many activities of man (agriculture, transportation, warfare etc), today, after more than 2½ century, that revolution has no doubt greatly damaged the very conditions that make life possible on this planet” IBY, (2013)

5. CONSEQUENCES
“Over the last two decades, 76% of all disaster events were hydrological, meteorological or climatological in nature. These accounted for 45% of the death and 79% of the economic losses caused by natural hazards” IDSR, (2008)

6. FOOD SECURITY
Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences.

7. CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA
Some of the pressing environmental challenges facing the country include deforestation, desertification, soil degradation, erosion, flooding, general habitat loss and depletion of natural resources. In the northern region of the country, sandy desert is extending southward at the rate of 0.6km per year, while in the south, the rainforest ecosystem which occupies nearly 10% of the country’s land mass in 1934 has been shrunk to barely 5% today. All of these are serious, but more serious as they affect the food security situation of the country.

8. CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA Cont’d…
Precisely, it has been observed that the general agricultural potentials of the nation is in jeopardy because, the ‘increasing heat’ and water stress due to heat has resulted to a decline in vegetation and general agricultural production. The significance of this is in the fact that the impact has the potential to gravely undermine the food security of the country as well as household food security.

9. CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA Cont’d…
The Ministry of Agriculture has estimated that 65% population is food insecure despite the fact that more than half of all employments depend on agriculture, reason being that, 90% of the produce comes from small rain-fed farms of few hectares, constrained by poor infrastructure, drought/flooding, pests and little access to credit. Many of the farmers are unable to meet their subsistence requirements, thus, exposing them and their families to volatile prices in the markets, poverty and hunger.

10. CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA Cont’d…
Non-economic resources such as biodiversity, air and water quality are also affected by adverse impacts of climate change. For example, many of the country’s plant resources are diminishing as traditional herbalists now have to do with inferior alternatives. Migratory pattern of fish stocks have changed markedly, just as the catch has declined. Prominent animal species such as rodents, reptiles, birds and fishes and other marine organisms that were a primary source of protein for millions of citizens especially in the south are being endangered.

11. CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA Cont’d…
For subsistent farmers, who constitute more than 75% of the farming population and who find adjustments to climate change as a costly option due to the required investments, they resort to disposing or mortgaging their assets and eventually emigrating.
High intense rainfall as forecasted in the southern part of the country has resulted in increased flooding and sedimentation of floodplains, making them less productive. The encroaching salinity due to sea level rise has further degraded the meagre agricultural areas.
Other array of threats by the adverse impacts of climate change in Nigeria include those evident in water resources and supplies (dwindling), health (unpredictable), energy (erratic), transportation (unreliable), education (in distress), recreation and tourism (in shambles), geographical boundaries of agro-ecosystems as well as species composition and performance (changing).

12. AGRICULTURAL POTENTIALS OF THE COUNTRY

13. AGROCLIMATOLOGICAL ZONES OF THE COUNTRY

14. AVERTING THE CHALLENGES
Remediation, protective and management measures of affected and vulnerable regions must commence without further delay. This will enhance food security, guarantee livelihoods and contribute to poverty eradication.
Aggressive attitudinal reorientation campaigns for the public to accept the realities of climate change and its implication on food security, biodiversity, the natural resources and survival of the human race generally. This need goal setting, commitment, and unrelenting hard-work by all.
Effective economic empowerment of the public, particularly the down-trodden, to enhance their ability to cope with the impacts of climate change. In this respect, budgetary allocation to climate change activities should be improved.
There are more than 67 plant species that are currently used for food and agriculture in Nigeria. Wild relatives of these common crops contain essential disease-resistant materials and provide the nation a means to develop new crops that can grow in derelict lands or drought-stricken areas to help solve the dual problems of climate change and food insecurity. Plant breeders must exploit these options.

15. AVERTING THE CHALLENGES, Cont’d…
Converting climate change consequences to the advantage of the country through multidisciplinary approaches to research, encouraging cooperation between social and natural sciences, and drawing lessons from indigenous technology knowledge systems and aboriginal wisdom.
Reflections on food security do not often appropriately consider the ongoing livestock revolution. Policy and research must emphasize on the role of range and grassland systems in soil conservation, resulting in creation of habitat for livestock and wildlife, and as refugia for biodiversity. With good husbandry, low-input grassland systems can meet the multipurpose goal of natural resource conservation, preservation of wildlife and plant biodiversity, and livestock production at low, but sustainable levels of productivity.
Nigeria has the potential to generate about 50% of Africa’s annual Certified Emission Reduction, CER and could implement GHG reduction projects that could generate CER credits of about 50 – 150 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. At U$D10:00 per tonne of CO2, this will translate to U$D500 million to U$D1.5 billion equivalent. Policy makers must utilize this advantage.
Review of existing unrealistic environmental laws/policies by the legislators/policy makers to make them (laws/policies) in tune with the realities of time. Furthermore, the will power to implement the provisions of the laws must be created.

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