Prof. Charles Anosike, the Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), has said that the agency’s partnerships with universities and other institutions of higher learning in the country would benefit farmers and people living in agrarian communities. 

Anosike said this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NiMet and Taraba State University in Abuja on Thursday.

The current MoU with the Taraba State University is for a four-year period and it’s renewable

He explained that the NiMet’s network of university partners was increasing, which he said added to the weather and climate data available to the country in addition to the data being generated by the agency’s owned weather stations.

“These various data enrich the accuracy of our weather forecasts in fulfillment of our mandate. These ultimately benefit the local farmers and other users,” he added.

Anosike assured that the agency would continue to monitor the performances of the MoUs signed with universities and other higher institutions to ensure that all the parties fulfilled their obligations. 

In his response Prof. Sunday Bako, the Vice Chancellor of Taraba State University, said that the aim of partnering with NiMet was to be able to meet the needs of the immediate university community and the larger community – agrarian communities.

He explained that the university had departments of Geography, Agriculture, and others including Ecotourism at the Taraba State University that would benefit from the partnership and intervention.

“Our agricultural faculty runs extension programs so with the data generated from the weather station, we can raise awareness on sustainable farming and climate-smart practices,” he added. 

The statement hinted that the overall objective of the collaboration was the promotion of activities relating to meteorology/climatology, and climate change in Nigeria.

It also aimed to enhance the capacity of the parties to provide relevant tools that would enhance the delivery of products and services to various sectors related to meteorology/climatology and climate change in Nigeria.