Climate-Smart Agriculture: WOFAN unfolds road map to accessing carbon credit opportunities
A non-profit organisation, Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), has organised a stakeholders meeting on Climate-Smart Agriculture and carbon credit opportunities to build resilience and sustainable smallholder farming in Nigeria.
The organisation said the meeting was to mobilise key stakeholders to accelerate the mainstreaming of climate-smart agriculture and carbon credit innovations in Nigeria, through collective action, strategic alignment, and identification of pilot communities for implementation.
Speaking at the event on Thursday, in Abuja, WOFAN-ICON2 Project Country Director, Dr. Salamatu Garba, said the meeting was to create awareness and sensitize stakeholders on Climate-Smart Agriculture and Carbon Credit Opportunities so as not to be left behind on the global scene.
‘’We decided to put this multi-stakeholders meeting together as many farmers in Nigeria do not understand what Climate-Smart Agriculture is all about and how to access Carbon Credit, which will enhance agricultural development in the country, ‘’Dr Garba said.
‘’For every action you take in addressing climate change, there’s a bonus, there’s a credit that is supposed to be given. So we need to create awareness, train people to understand what this is, get the right policy framework, talk to the policymakers so that we understand these things, review our existing climate change policies, and partner with the National Council on Climate Change and others so that all of us can integrate our work.
”This is a follow-up meeting from the one we attended recently in France with participants from 15 countries to consolidate the lessons, galvanise collective commitment, and lay the foundation for coordinated action.
‘’So, for us from Nigeria that participated, outcomes and part of the things we discussed was that we’re coming back home to expand the meeting and call other partners to listen to what we were told in Paris. And then we break into three thematic areas that include looking at the challenges and the issues, implementation and creating partnership and business models
According to her, most African countries are ahead of Nigeria in terms of giving success stories, hence ‘’we find it necessary to bring together fellow partners in the climate change sector, agricultural research institutions, network of farmers to see how to mitigate the issue of climate change and get bonuses and credits for our country, communities and individuals.
In a presentation, Prof. Jibrin Muhammad Jibrin, Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and former Director, Centre for Dryland Agriculture, Bayero University Kano, spoke extensively on Climate-Smart Agriculture and how that can be harnessed to ensure that farmers get better yields and also build resilience in their farming and mitigate the effect of climate change.
Jibrin said ‘’We have been promoting Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), and WOFAN that organised this meeting, has also been promoting CSA in many communities. But what we have not been doing is trying to get some of the other additional benefits that could come from implementing CSA , Some of these additional benefits include taking advantage of the carbon market. If we can prove that our farmers are doing practices that reduce emissions, that improve resilience of our crops and that even improve biodiversity and so on, then we can take advantage of the Carbon Credit market and get additional funds that can support our farmers.
Speaking on the criteria to access the carbon credit fund, Prof Jibrin said in the first instance, various stakeholders need to understand what the requirements are, map out how to fulfil the requirements and bring the advantage to the farmers.
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He lauded the federal government’s efforts on climate change with the establishment of the National Council on Climate.
Also, presenting a paper, titled Business Case for Climate Smart Communities, Secretary, Nigeria Climate Action Network, Mr. Sulaimon Arigbabu spoke on climate risks for smallholders and agricultural enterprise and key strategies to achieving climate smart Agricultural Communities.
He said for Climate Smart Agriculture to be effective on a large scale, it is essential that there is consistency between the commitments made (Such as funding, initiatives and pledges) and the actual implementation of these commitments.
‘’Projects need to be in harmony with national policies on climate, agriculture and development in order to foster an environment where CSA can succeed, supported by appropriate laws, funding models, infrastructure and accountability measures, Arigbabu said.
On his part, Chairman Board of Technical Advisors for WOFAN ICON2 Projects, Prof. Sani Miko, noted that it was a deliberate effort to bring all stakeholders to develop a framework that will enhance the road map towards achieving the set goals in CSA and accessing Carbon credit without leaving any of the stakeholders behind.
The Director of Climate Change, Kano State Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Dr. Umar Saleh Anka said strategically, Kano holds a unique advantage in the carbon market with its large population and significant forest resources.
Anka said in addition, Kano already has a climate policy in place, a comprehensive action plan, and an implemented strategic framework.
‘’This positions Kano as one of the leading environmentally proactive states in Nigeria when it comes to readiness for the carbon market, ‘’Anka noted.
SolaceBase reports that stakeholders at the meeting include Farmer groups, agriculture research institutes, Policy Makers, NGOs and the media among others.
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