Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said that the Federal Government would launch national crop insurance for farmers by 2015.
Adesina, who disclosed this in Abuja at a workshop on water management solutions for flood-recession and dry season agriculture in Nigeria, explained that the programme was intended to insure farmers against shocks and losses from weather related events.
He assured that the programme was designed to make farmers to "farm with peace", adding that farmers and communities must be protected from economic losses due to floods.
According to him, "Our goal is to insure no less than 10 million farmers. We will also design and implement a flood disaster payment policy that will protect farmers, communities and states from economic losses due to floods."
To mitigate the negative impact of climate change on agricultural productivity, he stressed the need to increase the number of agro-meteorological stations in the country to allow for more accurate prediction of rainfall and weather patterns for farmers.
"Instead of general rainfall forecasts, we should move to season rainfall forecasts, which should be easily available to farmers on their mobile phones.
"Such forecasts will also help with disaster planning. Farmers must be protected from the negative impacts of climate change with appropriate institutional risk management policies, especially crop insurance and strategic grain reserves, which reduce risk exposure and vulnerability to food security shocks," he said.
Speaking on the partnership between Nigeria and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the minister assured that Nigeria would put in place flood inundation mapping, risk assessment, and forecasting tools.
Adesina also said the partnership would support Nigeria to determine flood inundation patterns, plan pre- flood and post-flood management systems and improve on disaster planning and management.
"The Integrated Agricultural Water Management solutions, which IWMI will deploy in Nigeria over the next three years, are aimed at increasing agricultural production and food security through sustainable water management by creating the right infrastructural, institutional and financial environment for farmers to profitably engage in flood recession and dry season agriculture and to thrive in the face of the challenges of climate change.
"The focus will be on three states, Kogi, Benue and Anambra. The project will be in two phases. The first phase will focus on creating an evidence-based framework on assessing floods and flooding patterns for decision-making purposes.
"Through the concerted efforts of my Ministry and International Water Management Institute, we will utilise Agricultural Water Management solutions to improve food security through greater knowledge of our water resources and management and improve crop planning and scale up cropping intensity.
Source Daily Independent
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