By Patrick Obia
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted normal to above normal rainfall season in 2021 across the country.
And, Cross River will get 270 days of rainfall starting from March 4th, said Godwin Ugah Unimke, the Executive Director of Green Planet Initiative, a nongovernmental organization in Calabar on Thursday while enlightening farmers as the farming season commences.
Ugah, who is also the coordinator of Climate and Sustainable Development Network, explained that NiMet’s prediction could be a disaster and also of great benefit depending on how prepared farmers are.
He said “The purpose of this outreach is to ensure that farmers do not suffer from poor yield as in the time past due to ignorance. In the time past information was not available to farmers as at when to start planting and when to stop planting and this to a large extent affects the yearly yields of these farmers which further impoverished them and make them poorer; it is the prayer of every farmer to get good yields and enhance their livelihood and if that is not available, it becomes a problem both to the farmer and the society at large.
“The essence of this outreach is to share the information from the Nigerian Metrological Agency, on the rain fall prediction for the year 2021 as it relates to part of the local governments in Cross River State, basically, we are looking at Calabar Municipality and Odukpani which are our outreach target location for this year 2021.
“The message to farmers is to utilize the information that has been made available, part of the information is that the rainfall is going to be more which is good news for the farmer but again, for farmers that happen to cultivate their crops in areas that are flood prone, they have to be more careful in terms of how they go about their farming activities. For those that are close to erosion prone areas, they have to try as much as possible to know the implications of rainfall to their farming activities.
“April is going to be a better time, even though the rain seems to have delayed for about a month since it rained in March, the rain will fall throughout the year. In some areas like Calabar Municipality it will rain till 15th of December which is good news for the farmers. Farmers that are here (Calabar Municipality and Odukpani), their challenges are not too many, not that there are none but when you look at farmers in the northern part of the State that’s where the challenges comes because they could have issues of dry spell (rain stops falling for a long time). This information is timely and important; farmers should utilize it for their benefits.”
Speaking on behalf of other farmers, Mrs. Edomma Asuquo, commended Green Planet Initiative International for sharing the information which will impact positively on their farming activities.
“We want to appreciate you people so much because you people have done so much with this type of information we have received, this is because someone like me I did not have hope the rain will still fall but now I have been made to understand that rain will fall well this year and it will give me more confidence to do my farm work. I really thank you people so much since you people saw us and decided to branch to share this key information. We pray God to continue to give you all the enablement to give us this information,” she said.
She sought financial aid for farmers from relevant authorities to aid in the procurement of farm tools and decried the deception from people whom she said disguised as well wishers that raised their hopes for support only to fail them.
Speaking on behalf of other farmers, Mrs. Edomma Asuquo, commended Green Planet Initiative for sharing information which will impact positively on their farming activities.
“We want to appreciate you people so much because you people have done so much with this type of information we have received, this is because someone like me I did not have hope the rain will still fall but now I have been made to understand that rain will fall well this year and it will give me more efforts to do my farm work with efforts. I really thank you people so much since you people saw us and decided to branch to share this key information. We thank God to continue to give you all the enablement to give us this information,”she said.
She sought financial aid for farmers from relevant authorities to aid in the procurement of farm tools and decried the deception from people whom she said disguised as well wishers that raised their hopes for support only to dash them.
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