The director general and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) Prof. Sani Mashi has called for collaboration with non-governmental organisations, private and corporate organizations to equip local farmers with adequate information for the 2017 farming season.
He made the call in Abuja when the acting executive secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Prof. Ambrose Voh Jr and his staff visited NiMet headquarters.
He described the visit as “timely” saying NiMet had recently released its 2017 seasonal rainfall predictions (SRP).
Mashi expressed NiMet’s readiness to strengthen synergy with ARCN in the areas of manpower development, provision of SRP information, production of agro-meteorological and drought monitoring information as well as making available the data harnessed from the agency’s 54 synoptic stations.
The director general also said copies of the SRP documents were being circulated to various end users across the country for proper planning in all weather-related sectors.
Earlier in his remarks, Voh Jr said the visit was meant to explore avenues for further cooperation with NiMet to enhance the ARCN service delivery, especially in areas of data sharing, research and capacity building.
He stressed the need for the use of technology and dissemination platforms to reach out to local farmers to guarantee improved productivity.
