ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA: El Nino Sets its Sights on Nigeria’s Farms

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

AKURE, Nigeria, Dec 20 1997 (IPS) - Nigerian farmers are worried that a climatic phenomenon blamed for floods in East Africa will keep the rains away from the western fringe of the continent, and adversely affect their yields.

They expect el Nino to bring on a prolonged dry spell in Nigeria.

Among the first to sound the alarm are the country’s cocoa farmers. They fear that the drought el Nino is likely to cause will result in bushfires which could wreak havoc on the some 380,000 hectares of cocoa farmlands in the country.

The Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), which has its headquarters in the south-western town of Akure, has advised the relevant government agencies to be on maximum aert so as to avert the impending crisis.

El Nino is a warm Pacfic Ocean current whose action causes heavy rains in some cases and drought in others. It has been blamed for floods that swamped southern Somalia and then north- eastern Kenya, damage to crops in Central America and higher-than- normal temeratures in the South American nation of Bolivia.

Now it threatens Nigeria and its agriculture sector. CAN Executive Secretary Akinwale Ojo said reports from the field showed that cocoa farmers had raised the alarm over drying wells, low water levels and disappearing tributaries, which also characterised previous El Nino years.

In the 1977/78, 1982/83 and 1992/93 cocoa-producing years, the El Nino effect led to the destruction by fire of some 60,000 hectares (ha) of cocoa farmland, all told, out of an estimated total of 460,000 ha.

“Relevant government agencies like the fire brigade service should be on stand-by while enlightenment campaigns by various agricultural departments should be stepped up with seedlings being given out immediately to replace damaged crops,” Ojo said.

He also suggested irrigation on cocoa farms to offset the low water levels, which create favourable conditions for the spread of fires.

“The nation cannot afford another roud of fire incidents on the cocoa farms as Nigeria’s cocoa production may continue to decline unless proactive steps are taking to check the imminent crisis,” said Ojo.

Cocoa production declined from 74,000 tonnes in 1993 to 50,000 tonnes in 1994 and less than 40,000 tonnes in 1995 due mainly to old trees and the changing weather.

The Nigerian Metereological Services had early this year predicted low rainfall for 1997, especially in the southern part of the country which is where its cocoa is produced.

According to Sam Gbuyiro, a chief meteorologist in Lagos, southwest Nigeria and some parts of the centre registered less rain than normal this year as a result of El Nino.

He said a dry spell expected to last from June 22 to mid-July continued until the end of August in the southwest and, before that, less rain than normal had fallen there in April and May.

It is not just Nigeria’s farmers who are likely to suffer from the el Nino effect. In a recent report on food crops and shortages, the FAO predicts that a record 37 countries in Central America and Africa will face food shortages next year because of crop damage caused by El Nino.

The FAO and the World Food Programme have approved a 9.4- million-dollar emergency operation to provide six months of emergency food assistance to some 323,000 people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, the five central American countries likely to be affected.

The FAO has also pledged emergency aid in the form of seeds and farm implements worth 400,000 dollars to flood-hit Somalia. About 20,000 farm families in the south of the country will receive that aid, according to the FAO.