The Director Basic and Chief Govt Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Company, Professor Charles Anosike, has referred to as for insurance coverage protection for Nigerian farmers to strengthen meals safety.
Anosike made the decision when a delegation from the US Company for Worldwide Growth paid a courtesy go to to his workplace in Abuja on Tuesday.
He appreciated the delegation for recognising the position NiMet performs within the agricultural worth chain and the opposite sectors.
He, nonetheless, sought the company’s partnership in organising the forthcoming Agricultural Insurance coverage and Climate Advisory Companies Roundtable themed, “Creating Final-mile Constructions for Agricultural Insurance coverage & Climate Advisory Companies- A Threat Mitigation and Resilience Measure for Smallholder Farmers.”
The NiMet boss additional urged the USAID staff to additionally lengthen an invite to the monetary sector.
He stated, “NiMet does plenty of work in early warnings. Once we discuss insurance coverage or early warnings, it’s not simply concerning the productiveness of farmers. It’s additionally about saving lives. Lives have already been misplaced within the 2024 flood. Let’s needless to say early warnings save lives. When monetary establishments discuss danger administration, they concentrate on shareholder worth. If we’re in a position to get the monetary sector within the room for them to start to combine local weather danger into their operations and danger administration, we can persuade them. This can assist us to realize the agricultural insurance coverage scheme for farmers.
“In case you take a look at the financial system, no matter downside we’re having now, local weather change compounds it. It’s a risk multiplier. This compels NiMet to do issues in another way. We’ll take part In all features of the roundtable to make sure success and achievements of the set aims.”
He inspired the USAID staff to contemplate rolling out a pilot scheme of insurance coverage for the farmers earlier than bringing it to the general public sector, assuring that NiMet may even invite its stakeholders to be a part of it.
He additionally knowledgeable the delegation that NiMet will quickly be rolling out suites of coaching on climate, water, and local weather science to construct capability throughout its stakeholders and foster a shared imaginative and prescient.
Talking earlier in the course of the go to, the Chief of Occasion, Extension Exercise of USAID, Dr. Ben Odoemena, appreciated the Nimet Director Basic for granting the staff viewers.
He said that the company is now extra necessary as a result of it now impacts the lives of each Nigeria, stressing that “local weather change is right here to remain.”
He stated, “Our mission is to hunt collaboration with NiMet, and the company’s participation within the roundtable. The essence of the workshop is to carry the theme to the fore of key stakeholders, within the agricultural sector, insurance coverage sector, and monetary sector, amongst others
“Local weather change is right here. In case you are doing enterprise and also you don’t know whether or not it’s going to rain at present or rain tomorrow, then you aren’t in enterprise. Not solely in agriculture, it cuts throughout each side of life.
The position of NiMet is kind of strategic in reaching this goal and the proposed stakeholders’ roundtable will strongly complement NiMet’s providers.
“We can not obtain the target with out working with NiMet. Farmers are usually not insuring their farms and their companies. So it’s on this context that we stated, that as a lot as there may be poor or no penetration of insurance coverage within the rural settings, there may be additionally restricted penetration of climate info on the rural stage to the smallholder farmer and the micro farmer.
“We all know that NiMet is doing plenty of work, and really great issues within the subject however we have to scale the method. We wish to see a state of affairs the place a smallholder farmer will say that she or he desires to know what the climate might be tomorrow earlier than going to the farm. That consciousness needs to be instilled within the smallholder farmer. That’s the solely means we will know that we’re on observe in agriculture.”