Extreme weather threatening food security - NiMET

The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Abuja, Dr Anthony Anuforom, has named food security as a condition in which all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meet their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life.

Anuforom made this known at an occasion marking the 10th Annual Lecture of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka held at the University Auditorium.

Anuforom commended the Chairman UNIZIK Governing Council, Air Vice Marshal (Rtd) Larry Koinyan and the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, for the strides they are taking in the upliftment of the university.

Dr Anuforom in his lecture emphasised that food is among the basic physiological needs for human life.
The Guest Lecturer stressed that extreme weather occurs when the value of variable exceeds or falls below a predetermined upper or lower threshold of the normal range. He added that droughts, floods, heavy precipitation, heat waves, severe storms are common examples of extreme weather.

He also stressed that some socio-political stability in the country like the Boko Haram incidence which has resulted in loss of farmlands, crop failures, collapse of fisheries, increased soil salinity, oil spillage in the Niger Delta region which destroy the mangrove ecosystem, all contribute to disruption of economic system hence contributing significantly to food shortage in the country.

He also stressed that the impact of extreme weather events on food security in Nigeria can be managed through climate change adap­tation policies and appropriate economic policy framework by government.

Related News

500
Leave a comment...