SAPZ trains 15,000 farmers on dissemination of weather, climate information

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

The Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) has trained 15,000 extension service and weather farmer champions on Digital Dissemination of Weather & Climate Information and Advisory Services in Kano state.
SAPZ initiative is a flagship program supported by the Nigerian government, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in collaboration with the Government of Nigeria.
Also, the programme seeks to transform Nigeria’s agriculture by concentrating agro-processing activities in designated zones to boost productivity, reduce post-harvest losses, create jobs, and increase incomes.
Speaking at the opening of the one-day capacity building programme, held in Kano on Wednesday, Aminu Iliyasu the State Programme Coordinator of SAPZ, disclosed that the programme establishing a Climate Information Dissemination Unit (CIDU) to operationalize delivery and tracking of digital CIS to at least 15,000 IFAD-SAPZ beneficiaries in Kano
He said the 15,000 participants were drawn from the SAPZ Local Government Area/Cluster of Bichi, Dambatta, Dawakin-Tofa, Gezawa and Kura Local Government areas to receive the training on climate information and advisories across Kano.
According to Iliyasu the SAPZ programme is working in collaboration with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) to incorporate real-time weather forecasting, climate risk assessments, and climate-smart extension and advisory services into the program.
The aim, according to him, was to address the key climate risks in regions prone to extreme weather events such as flooding, droughts and dry spells with a view to mainstream climate change adaptation and good agronomic practices to build resilience and adaptive capacities of rural communities.
“Leveraging on the NiMet’s expertise in delivering digital weather forecasts and climate advisory to the SAPZ building on the lessons from the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) on Climate Information Dissemination and the Livelihood Enterprise in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) digital dissemination pilots, the SAPZ is establishing a Climate Information Dissemination Unit (CIDU) to operationalize delivery and tracking of digital CIS to at least 15,000 IFAD-SAPZ beneficiaries in Kano in the mean time, and adopt complementary channels such as the WhatsApp and interactive voice recording going forward.
“The programme present the approach to the CID stakeholders in the States and provide guidance to the selected Climate Champions, Agricultural Extension Agents and LGA Agricultural Coordinators in each of the SAPZ Local Government Area/Cluster to facilitate reaching at least 15,000 farmers with climate information and advisories across Kano and Ogun States.
“ It will provide knowledge and present tools to support the end-to-end dissemination process, including the adaptation of NiMet’s climate outlook and weather bulletin, translation to local language, and delivery of climate advisories.
“ It will also support monitoring of dissemination outputs, farmer reach, and feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement”, Iliyasu explained.
He said the digital platform was launched for for continuous networking, learning, and opportunity sharing.
On his part, Bello Sani, the National Environmental and Climate Change Officer (NECCO), explained that the training was facilitated by the three Technical Staff of the SAPZ, National Coordination Office and their state counterparts on the key thematic areas as follows.
He said the Environment and Climate Change Safeguards Officer trained participants to understand, adapt and translate digital weather and climate information and advisories to local contents; interpretation of quick weather updates on mobile phones through SMS /group-based dissemination of multimedia messages through weather farmer champions WhatsApp platforms.
“Agricultural Productivity Expert to train participants on digital dissemination of good agronomic practices and access to climate resilient products, market information, logistics; and dissemination of info graphs via cluster WhatsApp group.
“ ICT support staff to train participants on the use of digital ICT tool for biodata entry and validation; utilization of digital tracking tool to ascertain climate information delivery reports and collect farmer responses,” he explained.
The training was interactive through PowerPoint presentation giving highlights of Climate information dissemination protocols, tools for adaptation of NiMet’s weather outlook and bulletins and advisories to local contents, methodology for Environment & Climate Officers of the National Coordination office and State Project Implementation Units.