Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has called on the global leaders in agricultural research to ensure that the vulnerabilities of poor farmers are considered and the farmers protected from the vagaries of climate change.

Adesina made the call last week in New York during the First CGIAR Development Dialogues, organised by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research at Columbia University, New York.

Adesina, in a keynote speech, observed that, “while climate change is global, their effects are local.” According to him, “we must not abandon farmers to climate change.

“The poor farmers in developing countries cannot on their own be expected to adapt to climate change. Unless serious actions are taken, they will suffer disproportionately from climate change. It is therefore imperative that specific actions be taken to address the challenges of farmers, especially smallholder and women farmers, to enable them to build more resilient livelihoods.”

He stressed the need “for countries to develop national climate change adaptation funds to allow them to support farmers and communities to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.”

He added that “we must take our destinies in our own hands. We must focus on building economic buffers for farmers. Foremost among these measures must be the scaling up of weather index insurance to farmers. Priority must now be put into support for farmers to afford the premiums to improve access and affordability.”

Expressing concern for the home turf, Adesina warned that “nowhere is the urgency for action on climate change more important than in Africa.” In his view, “for good reason: over 65% of all the arable land left to feed the 9 billion people in the world by 2050 is in Africa. If we get climate change adaptation and mitigation right in Africa we will get future global food supply right.”

He suggested that, “more than ever before, we must achieve rapid increase in agricultural productivity in Africa and unlock the potential of agriculture to generate wealth. This will require a fundamental shift in approach to agriculture. We must cease treating agriculture as a development programme.