Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and the Attainment of Food Security in the Sudano-Sahelian Belt of Nigeria
Climate change and rainfall variability are evident in rainfall amount and the hydrologic growing season across the zone located between longitudes 3° and 15° east of the Greenwich meridian and latitudes 10° and 14° north of the Equator. These changes hav
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Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and the Attainment of Food Security in the Sudano-Sahelian Belt of Nigeria Aishetu Abdulkadir* Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction & Development Studies (CDRM & DS), Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
Abstract Climate change and rainfall variability are evident in rainfall amount and the hydrologic growing season across the zone located between longitudes 3 and 15 east of the Greenwich meridian and latitudes 10 and 14 north of the Equator. These changes have continued to escalate the vulnerability of people’s livelihood, as extreme weather conditions lead to reduction in agricultural yields which subsequently aggravate food insecurity. There is a general understanding of climate change and variability across the belt as indicated by the varying adaptation practices by individuals and communities to enable them to cope with the challenges of changing climate. Generally, in Nigeria, there are numerous crucial policies and programs aimed at addressing issues related to climate change adaptation and agricultural sustainability. However, the major concern is the level of implementation and its role in promoting, developing, and instituting effective adaptation strategies and practices that will enhance resilience of the vulnerable communities. Consequently, bottom-up approaches should be developed and promoted to identify and document existing adaptation practices, alongside with assessing these adaptation practices for scaling up potential cost-effective practices for enhanced climate change adaptation, attainment of food security, and resilience.
Keywords Climate change; Vulnerability; Adaptation practices; Livelihood and food security
The Sudano-Sahelian Belt of Nigeria The Sudano-Sahelian belt of Nigeria is located between longitudes 3 and 15 east of the Greenwich meridian and latitudes 10 and 14 north of the Equator. However, in reality, this extends to about latitude 9 in recent times. The extreme northern part of the belt approaches the desert fringes, particularly sharing boundaries with the semiarid and arid zones of the Niger Republic. The states located in this zone are Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Yobe, Borno, Gombe, Adamawa, Bauchi, and northern Kwara, Plateau, Niger, Nasarawa, and Taraba. Typical feature of this belt is land degradation in response to increase in both climate change and human activities: overcultivation and overgrazing. The climate is characterized by alternate wet and dry seasons in response to the changes in pressure patterns. There is high variability in dates of onset and cessation of rains across the region which results in variability in length of the rainy season; this can also be attributed to the migratory patterns of the Intertropical Discontinuity (ITD). The rainy season in this belt is associated with late onset and early cessation which is associated with strong storms which destroy life and property. The rainy season in this
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Handbook of Climate Change
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