By Grace Yussuf
The Agroecology and Circular Economy for Ecosystem Services (ACE4ES) Project held a sensitization workshop aimed at educating and engaging farmers and stakeholders on the principles of promoting sustainable agriculture, and building resilience to climate change.
Stakeholders at the workshop on Nov. 15, in Abuja included Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, National Center for Climate Change.
Others are All Farmers Association in Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Environment, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and Civil Society Representation.
The Nigerian Women Agro Allied Farmers Association (NWAAFA) was well presented by 10 women farmers at the event.
The Project Country Representative of the ACE4ES Consortium, Dr. Adeyemo Adeyemi, in his overview of the project and objectives, said agroecology is a system that strengthens resilience in agriculture.
He said the workshop was to introduce the ACE4ES project to key stakeholders in Nigeria and to discuss agroecology and circular economy strategies for enhancing sustainable agriculture and climate resilience.
According to Dr. Adeyemi, it is also to gather and foster collaboration for impactful policy integration in Nigeria.
A speaker at the workshop, Dr. Wale Olayide, who presented a case study on Successful Agroecology and Circular Economy Practices said agroecology thrives in ecology.
He said agroecology is adapting agricultural system to ecology to ensure resilience ecosystem in agriculture.
He added that adapting sustainable agriculture will assist to ensure food security and break seasonal farming in Nigeria, and urged that this must be sustained.
Dr. Olayide said that agroecology is regenerative as it ensures smart agriculture and climate change adaptation, that would not only promote food security, but would also enable affordability, accessibility, and ability to produce more with less.
Also Dr. Kwaku Asante, speaking on “Onboarding of the Draft Agroecolgy and Circular Economy’’, described the challenge agriculture faces in Africa as linked to lack of coherence.
He frowned at the silo approaches to agriculture, saying it was not helping agriculture to thrive in Africa.
According to him, “policy coherence is what we are advancing and we can use more than one stone to kill many birds.’’
Dr. Asante, a Project Lead from Ghana, said coherence helps to align and achieve consistency, while addressing climate challenges.
The sensitization workshop was jointly supported by AfricaRice, UN Environment Programme, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, among others.
