The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has partnered with the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes project to enhance agricultural productivity by providing farmers with real-time climate data.

In a statement signed by the agency on Wednesday, both organisations affirmed their commitment to leveraging climate and weather data to drive smarter agricultural practices and enhance food security in the region.

The National Project Coordinator of ACReSAL, Mukhtar Tanko, emphasised the central role of NiMet in the success of the initiative. “The ACReSAL Project recognizes NiMet as an important stakeholder in the development, deployment, and sustainability of the DPAE,” he said.

Tanko explained that the initiative aligns with the objectives of Sub-Component B2 of the ACReSAL Project, which seeks to support climate-smart agriculture at the household level. “Achieving this requires utilizing weather data to optimize farm management, leading to improved agricultural productivity,” he stated.

He added that the Federal Government, through ACReSAL, plans to develop a customized DPAE platform that will offer smallholder farmers access to both real-time and predictive agricultural information.

“This digital agricultural extension service will provide an opportunity whereby farmers can receive both real-time information and advice on agriculture information and customized and predictive content, such as input recommendations, market information, and weather-related information,” he said.

In response, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Charles Anosike, expressed strong support for the partnership.

He said, “You can’t practice precision-smart agriculture without weather and climate information. We have an existing relationship with ACReSAL, which has been productive, so we welcome this idea to strengthen our partnership. It is also important that NiMet is a part of co-developing the weather and climate dashboard and platform, which should be interactive and easy for the farmers to access and use.”

The statement also added that the DPAE platform aims to develop, pilot, and implement a precision digital agriculture extension system as part of a broader strategy to improve smallholder farmers’ access to extension and advisory services.

The system will coordinate key actors across the agricultural value chain, including farmers, public extension agents, input suppliers, traders, processors, and mechanization service providers, to drive integration and efficiency.