ICRISAT, IITA host conference on climate change, conflicts in West Africa’s drylands

The African Centre of Excellence in Dryland Agriculture (CDA) at Bayero University, Nigeria in collaboration with the International Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) are set to host an international conference focused on the relationship between resource constraints, climate change, and conflicts in West Africa’s  drylands.

The 3rd Biennial International Conference of Dryland, 2018 is themed: “Resource Constraints, Conflicts and Changing Climate in the Drylands: Options for Attaining the SDGs,” and is scheduled to hold on the campuses of the Bayero university between 24th and 28th of September, 2018.

The conference “aims to bring together scientists, farmers, policy makers, civil society organizations and private sector stakeholders from across the globe to examine how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would be attained in the drylands in the face of resource scarcity, climate change and the emerging conflicts,” said a statement on the conference’s website.

“If you look at the indices of human development in our region, the drylands of West Africa, we are among the poorest of the poor. We have the highest incidence of multidimensional poverty and the lowest crop yield,” said Professor Jibrin Jibrin, director of CDA Wednesday, while addressing reporters on the forthcoming conference

“All these issues are further compounded by our increasing population which means many of the problems we face are going to increase because we have more people putting more pressure on the resources; our life and livelihood is based on exploitation of natural resources.”

The CDA is a World Bank supported Africa Centre of excellence (ACE) in dryland agriculture which works in collaboration with various partners and stakeholders to support adaptation to the changing environment in African drylands through high quality training and outreach.

A statement on the conference’s website said in recent years, many nations in the drylands regions of the world had been awash with conflicts such as rebellion, insurgency and pastoralist-farmer clashes with attendant loss of lives and properties and impairment of agricultural development.