NIRSAL, NiMET seal pact to enhance agric output

The Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending and the Nigeria Meteorological Agency have entered signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance agricultural output.

The pact, which was signed at the headquarters of NIRSAL, would enable NIRSAL pursue strategies to cascade seasonal rainfall prediction components such as temperature, onset of rainfall and dry spells and cessation of rainfall to farmers.

The Managing Director of NIRSAL, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, signed on behalf of NIRSAL while the Director-General of NiMET, Prof Sani Mashi, signed on behalf of his agency.

The NIRSAL boss said the partnership would guard farmers against false-onset rain and recommended risk measures in places that would experience severe dry spells.

The states that will experience severe dry spells, according to him, are Bauchi, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Borno and Yobe.

He said the dry spell was expected to last between 10 and 21 days.

Abdulhameed said, “NIRSAL has embarked on an ambitious programme of structuring agricultural primary production in Nigeria with the much applauded Agro GeoCoop initiative in the field.

“This platform presents an organised setting for finance, market and risk management.

“Agro-meteorological risk policies based on NiMet’s data can be promoted to support the insurance industry in Nigeria.”

The NIRSAL boss said with 16,000 Agro GeoCoops, four million hectares and eight million farmers, it was sufficient for NiMet to align its strategy for siting weather stations in those commodity ecological

Abdulhameed said the partnership would help to further pursue the development of crop-specific calendars for NIRSAL’s focus commodities.

This, he stated, would provide precise information on planting, maintenance and harvesting within NiMet’s data.

The NiMeT boss described the partnership as a perfect combination for promoting climate-smart agriculture in agricultural activities.