Optimizing the Instrument of Biotechnology in Reducing Climate Change Induced Food Insecurity in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper reviews inhibiting factors which climate change places on Nigerian agricultural productivity and food security. Nigeria's agriculture and food security is more than 90 percent dependent on weather and climate elements, especially precipitation (rainfall), humidity, wind and evapo-transpiration. Climate change and climate variability are now happening, and they tend to exacerbate such extreme meteorological events as droughts, floods, heat waves and storms. These extreme weather events are not only intensifying but are also occurring more frequently in many parts of Nigeria. These extreme events are very inimical to agriculture and the food security of Nigeria. For example, droughts now persist in many parts of Nigeria and farmers have constantly recurring stories of losses in their agricultural productivity. In the more humid southern part of Nigeria, floods and destructive storms now occur more frequently, wreaking havoc; farmers count their losses whenever these events strike. Both the on-set and cessation of rains fall outside the routines long established and taken for granted by farmers for decades. Consequently, climate change has now emerged as one of the key obstacles to the attainment of food security in Nigeria. The good news is that the field, of biotechnology, which is an applied form of biology, has many techniques and processes which can be explored, exploited, optimized and widely adopted for improving Nigeria's agriculture and enhancing her food security, especially in this era of climate variability and change. This paper discusses these processes and techniques in full.