ACReSAL, North Central states in pact to boost agriculture
From Abubakar Abdullahi, in Lafia
Issues of degredation, Aforestation and climate change has over the years affected the livelihood and existence of people, hence the collaboration between Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) project and some state governments in the Northern Zone to evolve measures to tackle such issues through a sustainable resilience plan.
The National coordinator ACRESal, Abdulhamid Umar disclosed this during a two day engagement meeting with stakeholders in lafia Nasarawa state.
The stakeholders engagement on the development of management plans in riparian and wetland zones of northern Nigeria has drawn the attention of people to the increasing implementation of sustainable landscapes management practices to target watershed and strengthen environmental plan for integrated climate resilience and maintaining smart Agricultural practices
The National coordinator ACRESal Abdulhamid Umar says to comprehensively bring out the structures and mechanism for a robust and encompassing management plan,there is need for an engagement as such to interchangeable strengthen watershed and hydrological areas in affected state for long term achievement.
Nasarawa state Commissioner for Environment and Natural resources kwanta yakubu said the state government is readily available to key into such policies to increase implementation for sustainable landscapes management across the state.
He calls on all stakeholders representing the state to bring to bear their wealth of experience and comeup with a workable template and policies to address environmental challenges bedevilling the state.
Other stakeholders who spoke at the engagement acknowledge that implementation of the submissions at the event would ensure food security and improve the livelihood of the citizenry not only in the north central region but the entire country.
They explained that understanding the status of different environments and challenges as well as the status has made it easy for harmonization towards evolving plan and strategies for sustainable environment for agricultural activities
At the end of the engagement, participants cut across Taraba Plateau and Nasarawa states have come up with an encompassing catchment management plan document that will be in line with global best practices help the zone to address it’s environmental challenges.
