The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Charles Anosike has said that the agency’s partnerships with universities and other institutions of higher learning in Nigeria would benefit farmers.
In a statement signed by the agency on Thursday, Anosike said, “NiMet’s network of university partners is increasing. This adds to the weather and climate data available to us in addition to the data being generated by our agency-owned weather stations.
“These various data enrich the accuracy of our weather forecasts in the fulfilment of our mandate. These ultimately benefit the local farmers and other users.”
Anosike added that the agency would continue to monitor the performance of the Memorandum Of Understanding signed with universities and other higher institutions to ensure that all the parties are fulfilling their obligations.
Responding, the Vice Chancellor of Taraba State University, Professor Sunday Bako, said the aim of partnering with NiMet is to meet the needs of the immediate university community and the larger community, which is agrarian.
“We have departments of geography, agriculture, and others, including ecotourism, at the Taraba State University that would benefit from the partnership and intervention.
“Our agricultural faculty runs extension programs so with the data generated from the weather station, we can raise awareness on sustainable farming and climate-smart practices,” the statement added.
It added that the MoU is for four years and is renewable, stressing that the overall objective of the collaboration is the promotion of activities relating to meteorology/climatology, and climate change in Nigeria.
