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Tag: Sani Mashi

  • NiMet, IFAD sign MoU on climate change to boost food production

    NiMet, IFAD sign MoU on climate change to boost food production

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Fund for Agricultural Development  ( IFAD ) on Climate Change Adaptation and Agri-Business Support Programme, IFAD-CASP.

    A statement by Mr Muntari Ibrahim, General Manager, Public Relations Unit, on Monday in Abuja, said the MoU had a renewable life span of four years.

    The statement noted that Prof. Sani Mashi, Director-General, NiMet, said the MoU was aimed at improving yields, mitigating the vagaries associated with climate change, and reducing the risk of crop failure.

    “The key components of the MoU include prediction of rainfall establishment, rainfall variability, dry spells and length of raining season for sustainable agriculture

    “Another component, is the installation of NiMet applications to CASP smart phones for real-time climate and weather information in the designated programme areas,’’ the statement said.

    Mashi added that the MoU would also cover the development of crop calendars in line with the value chain crops adopted by the selected communities.

    “It also included training of Extension Workers, Climate Change Officers and Community development associations in the analysis and interpretation of the Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) in selected CASP states.

    “The programmes of IFAD are in tandem with NiMet’s core mandate, which are geared toward poverty reduction, increase in food security and accelerated economic growth on a sustainable basis,” Mashi said.

    Mashi said that the collaboration was designed to improve crop yields and farming systems through adaptation to climate change in core northern savannah states adjudged to be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

    He listed the states as Katsina, Borno, Sokoto, Yobe, Kebbi, Zamfara and Jigawa.

    “These states are to benefit from the IFAD/NiMet symbiotic relationship, which will reduce the losses incurred by farmers in the states over the years as a result of climate change and weather uncertainties.”

    The National Programme Coordinator, CASP, Muhammad Idah, said the synergy between the two organisations across the aforementioned Northern states would be downscaled to cover 104 local government areas and 727 villages.

    Idah said the synergy would enable the agencies to provide climate change adaptation and resilience information to the farmers to manage and coordinate their farming practice.

    The programme, according to him, was aimed at promoting climate smart agricultural production.

    He commended NiMet for the recent training of CASP field climate change officers and extension agents.

    According to him, the officers can confidently predict rainfall through the help of the rain gauges presented to them by NiMet.

    “An action plan is to be developed to periodically assess the level of impact of the collaboration on farmers of the targeted seven Northern states,” he said.

    NAN

  • NiMet to establish meteorological infrastructure in universities

    NiMet to establish meteorological infrastructure in universities

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet ), says it is set to establish meteorological infrastructure in 34 universities in Nigeria.

    The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Prof. Sani Mashi said this in a statement issued by Mr Muntari Ibrahim, the General Manager, Public Relations Unit, NiMet on Thursday in Abuja.

    Mashi said the establishment of meteorological infrastructure was in furtherance of its target to increase the network of meteorological stations and boost its data collection.

    The director-general spoke when he visited the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission ( NUC ), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed.

    Mashi said that NiMet had embarked on an aggressive programme to massively expand the network of meteorological stations in the country to about 1000 by December.

    According to him, one of the strategies the agency will employ to achieve this is to partner with Nigerian universities.

    “Part of the things we said we would do is to see how we can extend our services to the Nigerian universities.

    “NiMet has carried out an independent assessment of the universities and looked at the existing meteorological stations that these universities maintain.

    “One of the things that are missing is the linkage between the universities and the agency.

    “NiMet has the expertise and knows what should be in place, while the universities have the capacity to teach, but may not have the technical competence to know the best equipment for the best results.
    “We feel that what we need to do, we need to come up with a way to help the universities get their infrastructure upgraded,’’ he said.

    Mashi said the partnership with the universities was a win-win situation, explaining that once the meteorological stations were upgraded, they would start generating data.

    “This partnership according to him will expand the agency’s network of stations, because the universities’ infrastructure has been upgraded.’’

    The NUC executive secretary Rasheed, assured NiMet that the commission would fully support the initiative and promised to talk to the Vice Chancellors about it.

    He commended NiMet for the initiative and expressed the hope that universities in the country would be covered by 2018 as well as Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

    NAN

  • World Bank, UNDP seek NiMet’s support on climate services

    World Bank, UNDP seek NiMet’s support on climate services

    The World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ) have solicited the support of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet ) in their climate and weather services initiatives in some developing countries.

    A statement by Mrs Theresa Ushie, Assistant General Manager, Public Relations, NiMet, on Tuesday in Abuja said the beneficiary nations in Africa were Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia, and Singapore in Asia.

    Prof. Sani Mashi, Director-General of NiMet said the synergy was in recognition of the agency’s track record in providing quality meteorological services and attainment of ISO 9001:2015 certification of its aeronautical services.

    Mashi disclosed this on Tuesday when he received a delegation from the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) in Abuja.

    He said that NiMet was mandated to promote the application of meteorological information to address development in accordance with the provisions of the Global Framework for Application of Climate Services (GFCS).

    NiMet boss disclosed that Nigeria had produced a National Framework for the Application of Climate Services ( NFACS ), which according to him, is awaiting presidential approval.

    “NiMet is providing support services to Liberia and Sierra Leone through daily weather forecast services; provides technical support to the ECOWAS Commission; and training of meteorologists in Benin Republic and the Gambia, among others.

    “NiMet is the first, and the only meteorological agency in Africa to receive the International Standards Organisation, ISO 9001:2015 certification for the provision of meteorological services for the aeronautical sector.

    Mashi, however, pledged NiMet’s continuous support for ECOWAS meteorological programmes.

    Earlier, Dr Johnson Boanuh, Director of Environment, ECOWAS Commission, who led the delegation, said they were in NiMet to acquaint themselves and their programmes with the new management.

    Boanuh, while commending NiMet, expressed appreciation for the agency’s support for the ECOWAS commission and the Regional Office for World Meteorological Organisation ( WMO ) in Nigeria.

    He disclosed that the WMO and GFCS Secretariat in Geneva had established an office in Dakar, Senegal to support and facilitate the establishment of NFACS in all ECOWAS member states.

    According to him, part of the programme drawn to facilitate the establishment of the NFACS is geared towards strengthening the capacities of the various National Hydro-Meteorological Services to meet their obligations.

    Boanuh said the body had commenced the needs assessment programme for ECOWAS member states, which according to him, will be executed in phases.

  • Flooding can impact negatively on food production, health – NiMet DG

    Flooding can impact negatively on food production, health – NiMet DG

    The Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Sani Mashi, says flooding in some parts of the country can impact negatively on crop production and the health of Nigerians.

    Mashi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that it was likely that a lot of crops would be submerged in many states.

    He, however, said the agency predicted occurrence of flooding during the early part of the raining season in 2017.

    He said, “The implications of this are simple and very clear; you know that crops receive fixed amount of water in form of rain to be able to grow over a certain period.

    “If that amount is exceeded, it can affect the productivity of the crop and if that amount is less than what the crop requires, it means the crop performance will be impeded.

    “It means the implication on crop production is quite obvious; a number of crops would be submerged, some will be forced to accommodate water that they cannot accommodate.

    “It will definitely affect their performance and affect food production in different parts of the country,’’ he said.

    Mashi explained that flooding could also affect health because it could encourage disease-carrying vectors or organisms to breed faster as a result of excess water on the land surface.

    He also said that there had been reported cases of water borne diseases in some parts of the country, in line with NiMet’s warning during its 2017 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP).

    “When you look at health, the problem we normally encounter, especially when you have flooding, is that a lot of things that need not to be carried by water will now be forced to be carried.

    “For instance, sewage and things on the dump site will be washed and then the water sources, which a lot of people rely on, will be contaminated.

    “And because water will remain over land surface for long, you have very fertile ground for vectors that are supposed to be spreading water borne diseases to breed.

    “Definitely, when you have a situation like this, the health sector will be affected as much as the agriculture sector will be affected.

    “There are a lot of cases of outbreak of water borne diseases that have been reported in different parts of the country as a result of this.’’

  • Air accidents not linked to weather in decade – NiMet boss

    Air accidents not linked to weather in decade – NiMet boss

    The Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Sani Mashi, says there has not been any air traffic accident linked to weather within the last ten years.

    Mashi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said the agency had enhanced its capacity to monitor weather activities within airports and along flight routes across the country.

    According to Mashi, “Go through the record, you will see that, within the last ten years, there has not been any air traffic accident that has been linked or remotely linked to weather.

    “Why has that been possible? We have increased our capacity to forecast.

    “We have increased our capacity to monitor not (only) directly within the vicinity of the airport, but (also) along the major routes that aircraft fly within the country.

    “We give adequate briefing to those in the aviation industry.’’

    Mashi said that NiMet had also developed strategies to provide timely weather information to farmers in the agriculture sector so as to guide to better them to crop productions.

    He also said that the agency had embarked on sensitisation programme to create awareness on the danger of weather events, especially thunderstorms, rains and temperatures through its quarterly bulletin.

    Mashi said that the agency was currently faced with challenges of inadequate weather stations and activities of vandals in communities where its equipment are located.

    He therefore called on host communities of NiMet installations to support the agency by securing such installations to forestall the negative consequences to air and weather hazards.

    The NiMet boss said the agency had concluded arrangements to commence the provision of forecast services to the oil and gas sector of the economy.

    According to him, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has certified NiMet to extend its services into the sector after evaluation of its technical capability.

    “For the oil and gas sector, we can only provide these services if we are given the necessary clearance by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

    “They said they have to come and audit us to know our capability; whether we have the technical capacity to provide the services.

    “They came and saw what we have and came to the conclusion that we can offer these services. So two months ago, they gave us the clearance.

    “They wrote the oil companies to inform them that NiMet has been given clearance to participate in the sector.

    “Recently, Shell Company advertised that they need a company to provide meteorological services; Shell already contacted us and we are responding to that,’’ he said.