Charles Anosike, Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), has pointed out that there are several factors hindering the efficiency of Nigeria’s climate early warning system (EWS). These include inadequate meteorological observation networks, disorganized coordination, and low technical capacity. He emphasized that disseminating pertinent climate warnings to smallholder farmers, particularly among rural women and youth, remains a major challenge. Anosike mentioned this at the launching event of “Building Agricultural Systems Resilience in Nigeria Project” in Abuja. He claimed that the project, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, would strengthen the nation’s Infrastructure for climate early response and warning systems in order to close existing gaps.
According to him, the project will increase analytical capacity and capability, improve support for locally designed climate analytics and information services, and strengthen early warning systems through improved interagency cooperation in order to meet the demand for timely and relevant climate information for decision-support analytics in the Agriculture sector. Technical directors from relevant ministries and agencies, technical partners, implementing partners, and members from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation make up the directing committee, which is spearheaded by the DG of NiMet.
Strong emphasis is placed on climate early warning systems.
This committee is responsible for supervising the project’s execution, offering strategic direction, tracking advancement, advocating for programme synchronization, and guaranteeing efficient risk mitigation. By boosting Nigeria’s agricultural systems’ resistance to climate change, the effort aims to increase its ability to provide pertinent and timely climatic information. Alongside NiMet, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), the Federal Ministry of Environment, and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) are among the project’s major partners.
The Nigerian government has placed strong emphasis on climate early warning systems in an effort to reduce catastrophe risk, improve preparedness, and lessen the effects of global warming and extreme weather. For a nation like Nigeria, that frequently struggles with numerous climate-related issues such heat waves, droughts, and floods, these systems are crucial. By giving communities and authorities timely and reliable information, these systems are expected to lessen the negative effects of climate-related dangers and empower people to take preventive action.
Govt has partnered with several international organizations.
Among the crucial contributions by NIMET is gathering and evaluating meteorological data, installing radar systems, satellite technologies and weather stations in order to track and predict weather patterns. Early warning systems for flooding have been installed in flood-prone areas of Nigeria. These systems estimate impending flooding occurrences leveraging hydrological models, real-time river monitoring, and weather forecasts. The nation monitors the Drought by evaluating soil moisture, rainfall patterns, and vegetation health using satellite data, ground observations, and climate models. This aids in forecasting drought situations and provides farmers with guidance on crop choice and water management.
With the goal of integrating and improving early warning systems nationwide, the Nigerian government is developing a national framework for climate services. The government has also partnered with several international organizations on environmental projects, including early warning systems for climate change. Taking for instance, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been involved in a number of projects to increase Nigeria’s climate resilience. Nigeria and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have partnered to enhance early warning systems and meteorological services. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has funded multiple initiatives targeted at strengthening Nigeria’s climate resilience.
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Additionally, the country has received funding from the European Union (EU) for numerous Climate Change resilience and environmental projects. The ultimate objective of these collaborations is to reduce the effects of climate change on vulnerable communities to improve that nation’s preparedness and response capacity to climate-related risks. Although Nigeria has made admirable efforts to create EWS, a number of obstacles still stand in the way of their success, including issues with limited coverage, infrastructural gaps, a lack of technical experience and ability, communication and awareness issues, and integration and coordination problems.