UK sets out support to make Nigeria's agriculture sector more ... - Reuters UK
UK sets out support to make Nigeria's agriculture sector more climate- resilient | Reuters
UK sets out support to make Nigeria's agriculture sector more climate- resilient
[1/2]A farmer carries a basin of cassava after a harvest on a farm in Oyo, Nigeria May 18, 2023. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja
LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - British Foreign Minister James Cleverly will set out a new package of support to make Nigeria's agriculture sector more climate-resilient during a visit to the African country this week, his office said on Tuesday.
The support includes a 55 million-pound contract to help transform Nigeria's rural economy and a 2.9 million-pound grant to support more than 4 million people in adopting and scaling up sustainable agricultural practices, the government said.
"Together we are focussing on the future putting in place green, clean measures, both in agriculture and infrastructure development, to create climate-resilient solutions for the global challenges we all face today and will increasingly face in the years to come," Cleverly said in a statement.
A majority of people in Africa's most populous nation live in rural areas and are at the sharp end of climate change, especially drought and flooding, causing havoc with their livelihoods.
The new funding would boost productivity and resilience in the West African country's agriculture sector to the impacts of climate change and help develop heat- and flood-tolerant crops and increase soil fertility, the British government added.
Cleverly - who is due to visit Nigeria's commercial hub, Lagos, on Tuesday and its capital Abuja on Wednesday - will also announce a 10 million-pound facility to provide funding for climate-friendly infrastructure projects, the statement said.
More than 600 people were killed and at least a million displaced in Nigeria last year following the worst flooding in a decade.
The floods washed away crops, exacerbating a food crisis in a nation where millions have fallen into food poverty in the past three years, according to international aid groups.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”