Climate-Smart Agriculture in Borno state of Nigeria
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The climate smart agriculture (CSA) concept reflects an ambition to improve the integration of agriculture development and climate responsiveness. It aims to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA initiatives sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce/remove greenhouse gases (GHGs), and require planning to address trade-offs and synergies between three pillars: productivity, adaptation and mitigation. The priorities of different countries and stakeholders are reflected to achieve more efficient, effective, and equitable food systems that address challenges in environment, social, and economic dimensions across productive landscapes. The country profile provides a snapshot of a developing baseline created to initiate discussion, both within countries and globally, about entry points for investing in CSA at scale.
The economy of Borno State is largely agrarian, with livestock husbandry, crop production and fishing on the Lake Chad dominating the economic activities of the population. Agriculture is mainly subsistent, with over 70% of her population depending on it directly or indirectly for their livelihoods. It provides the bulk of employment, income, food, and clothing for the rapidly growing population as well as supplying raw materials for agro-based industries. In Borno State, agriculture contributes up to 65% of the State’s Gross Domestic Product. Major cash crops are cotton, sesame and groundnuts while food crops include maize, yam, cassava, sorghum, cowpea, sorghum, millet, sweet potato and rice. Cattle and other livestock also have enormous value chain growth opportunities. With the recent insecurity that worst hit Borno state, food production (crop/animal and fishing) contribute to only 5.9 % of the food needs of the state. Virtually, 94% of food consumed in Borno are imported either in form of credit or gift from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), world food program (WFP), and civil societies among others.
Declining soil fertility, climate change, low farm input lets, limited investment and poor infrastructure continue to hamper agricultural productivity and developments in the agricultural sector. The Borno state and indeed Nigeria has made efforts to enhance the resilience of the agriculture sector to climate change. The ongoing development of the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP), the development of a National Policy on Climate Change and Response Strategy (NPCCRS) and the numerous plans, strategies and policy enabling environment are thought to set the State on the path towards sustainable development under the realities of a changing and varying climate. Some CSA practices (e.g. intercropping/multiple cropping, agroforestry, conservation agriculture etc.) are quite widespread and their proliferation has been facilitated by ease of adoption, and multiple benefits such as food, income diversification and improved resilience.
Although there are a wide range of organizations conducting CSA-related work, most have focused largely on food security, environmental management and adaptation. There is the need to also integrate mitigation into the State’s climate-smart agriculture development efforts. In addition, off-farm services related to CSA need to be enhanced, including weather-smart and market-smart services. Funding for CSA is limited in the State and Nigeria in general, however there are opportunities to access and utilize international climate finance from sources such as the Green Climate Fund and Global Environment Facility and through readiness and capacity building programmes. At the national level, the National Agricultural Resilience in Nigeria, an arm of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development which targets reforestation, agriculture and livestock, is a useful mechanism for directing climate finance to CSA-related activities. Others are the fund set aside for the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan for Climate Change in Nigeria (NASPA-CCN) which can benefit CSA-related activities the Borno State.