The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has warned of an impending threat to food security in Nigeria and 10 other nations in the West African region.
According to the institute, crisis would only be averted if deliberate efforts are made by both governments and the private sector to include climate change adaptation to food security investment in the region.

The IFPRI survey that led to this caution used sophisticated modeling and available data to develop future scenarios exploring the range of climate change consequences for agriculture, food security, and resource management and offered recommendations to West African national governments and regional agencies.
It offered, for the first time, country-by-country climate data and analysis for 11 of the countries that make up West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

According to the IFPRI, West African policy makers must prepare for future challenges from climate change as they address the pressing needs of broad-based economic growth.

“Maize, millet, rice, and sorghum are the major cereal crops in the region, yet yields from these crops are very low compared to the world average and even other regions in Africa. Impacts from a changing climate will challenge production systems already under pressure to produce more to feed a growing population. Existing farming systems, including crops and livestock, are adapted to today’s agro-ecosystems in the region, but climate change will alter those systems in uncertain ways, affecting livelihoods, especially those of poor farmers,” the IFPRI survey noted.

According to the international food agency, this survey is greatly needed in the West Africa region to fill a major gap in the availability of up-to-date scientific information on the vulnerability of the agriculture sector to climate change in countries and in the region.

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