. 97% of Nigerian communities still use firewood, says UNDP
The Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, yesterday, said the inclusion of agroforestry and land use into national policy would help address issues of land degradation and sustain the environment.
The Minister made this known at a two-day National Stakeholders’ Consultative Workshop on the Inclusion of Agroforestry and Land Use into National Policy on Environment in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
Abdullahi was represented by the Assistant Director on Policy Analysis and Desk Officer, United Nations Development Program Global Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF), Daniel Aleriwon.
He said the Ministry is ready to take the project from the surface level and ensure it becomes a national policy because of the relevance of the environment on food security.
According to him, the essence of the project is to integrate all agricultural products to enhance food availability for Nigerian citizens, and also help in improving the environment rather than degrading it.
We want to work on the national policy to promote agroforestry and land use in the agriculture system towards making food available for all in a sustainable way for generations to come.
He said part of efforts in upscaling the project is to institutionalise it and make it a major part of the policy trust of the Ministry so that future governments can have something to work with.
“We are here today to advance a cause towards making the effect of the project to be an everlasting one; we want to institutionalise the project; we want to make it a policy.
“We want to work on the national policy to promote agroforestry and land use in agriculture system towards making food available for all in a sustainable way for generations to come,” he said
Cooking with firewood
Meanwhile, the UNDP-GEF Integrated Approach Programme for Food Security (IAP-FS) has said that about 97% of Nigerian communities still use firewood for cooking and other activities.
The Project Manager, UNDP-GEF, Mrs Rhoda Dia, made this known at the two-day workshop, saying that cutting down the trees for firewood had degraded the land and exposed it to many other factors, which are affecting the sustainability of the environment and food security.
She said there was a need to find a solution to the trend to minimise the effect of cutting down trees on the availability of food in the future.
Dia said the case was alarming, adding that, “what we discover from our baseline report is that 97% of our communities use firewood for cooking.”
We have provided an alternative form of energy for them and taught them how to make it and this has helped to generate income for them and better improve their livelihood and produce food in a sustainable manner.
According to her, UNDP-GEF projects are fostering sustainability and resilience for food security, which are being implemented in seven states of Kano, Katsina, Benue, Nasarawa, Gombe, Jigawa and Adamawa.
She said the projects have done a lot to train women and youths on sustainable energy.
“We have provided an alternative form of energy for them and taught them how to make it and this has helped to generate income for them and better improved their livelihood and produce food in a sustainable manner.
“We have taught them how to use residues from their farms, how to make energy efficient cook-stoves and also to market them,” she said
According to Dia, UNDP-GEF with the efforts of farmers in some of the beneficiary states have planted over 30,000 tree seedlings in their communities and ensure the trees grow and survive.
“Our farmers have given us their plots of land for agroforestry purposes, and for the survival of the trees, we ensure that wells are dug so that during the dry season, those planted seedlings can be watered throughout the season.
“We thereby call for climate smart agriculture for production of food and at the same time look after the environment to ensure that our land is not degraded.
She said UNDP-GEF had trained farmers on so many initiatives for land restoration, like manual compost making, cover crops racing and so many initiatives that could help restore the land into its original form. (NAN)
