Environment Minister Enjoins ACReSAL & NAGGW to Collaborate on Implementation of Climate Smart Agriculture

As part of effort to achieve the mandates of the Environment Ministry, Mallam Balarabe Abbas Lawal, Hon. Minister of Environment has urged ACReSAL team to collaborate with National Agency For Green Great Wall (NAGGW) on the implementation of Climate Smart Agriculture and restoration of riparian areas.

The Minister stated this at the Environment ministry headquarters in Abuja during his meeting with Heads of Departments, Agencies and projects under the Federal Ministry of Environment.

Mallam Balarabe called for an engagement meeting with ACReSAL project stakeholders to educate them on their roles and responsibilities to ACReSAL Project Implementation.

He assured of his readiness to meet with the World Bank Task Team on ACReSAL project and all stakeholders to ensure the achievement of the project development objective .

Presenting the ACReSAL Project implementation progress, the National Project Coordinator of the ACReSAL, Dr. Abdulhamid Umar informed the Minister that the project operates in the 19 (Nineteen) Northern States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Speaking on the project characteristics, Mr. Umar disclosed that ACReSAL is Multi-sectoral covering Environment, Agriculture and Water, as well as Multi-level (National…State…Local/Community) project which is fundamental to Federal Government of Nigeria’s objective of restoring 1 million hectares of degraded land -out of the 4 million hectares target set for broader landscape restoration by 2030.

He told the minister that the project which became effective in June 2022 has four key inter-related components which make up the Intermediate Results (IRs) of the Results Framework. The components are; Dryland Management, Community Climate Resilience, Institutional Strengthening & Project Management and Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC).

According to the NPC, “The goals of the Project includes: reducing land degradation and erosion, increasing vegetative cover; improving agricultural productivity; increasing availability and access to water; improving pasture management, enhancing farm and non-farm livelihoods to broaden economic activity, particularly for women and vulnerable groups, reducing the community’s dependency on, and inappropriate use of natural resources etc.”

He revealed that presently land restoration activities have commenced and the project has restored over 2000 hectares of degraded land. He also noted that the project has recorded 96,529 beneficiaries, 44,992 are women (representing 47%).