The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has disclosed that it is ready to strengthen its partnership with the Nigerian government in assisting smallholder farmers build more resilience to shocks arising from agricultural disasters.
The FAO Deputy Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Shukri Ahmed, during a media briefing in Abuja, made it known that disasters such as floods, droughts and several other climate disasters would always come, but what is important is the preparedness to prevent their impact on the people.
The FAO’s partnership is expected to cover the provision of technical support, especially to vulnerable smallholder farmers, and help them build resilience in agriculture-based livelihoods to multiple shocks in a way that is sustainable and natural.
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Ahmed pointed out that the collaboration is meant to make a difference in the lives of smallholder farmers that are mostly affected by the current cascading shocks around the globe, coupled with climate related problems, saying one time you talk about drought, and then suddenly you are talking about floods.
He noted that displacement recorded in Nigeria due to conflicts impacts poor farmers and that managing disasters has become the lifestyle of many African countries, but there is a need to move away from managing disasters to managing risks to build farmers’ resilience in managing shocks.
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According to him, the mission in particular is to work and bring the technical knowhow of FAO to support the government, adding that the mandate of FAO from the very beginning was to eliminate hunger and eliminate poverty.
Speaking also was the FAO assistant Director-General, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, who explained that the aim of the visit was to come and interact with different stakeholders in drive towards food security and achieving sustainable development goals agenda of zero hunger.
