The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has kick-started an awareness campaign on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to enhance the integration of agricultural development and climate responsiveness toward increasing food production in the country.

The Acting Secretary, FCTA Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Mr Ibe Chukwuemeka, made this known while inaugurating the sensitization exercise on the adaptation and building of “Resilient Agricultural and Food Security Systems’’ at the Palace of the Sa’peyi of Garki, Alhaji Usman Nga’kupi on Wednesday in Abuja.

Chukwuemeka noted that the promotion of resilient agricultural and food security systems will help to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural activities.

The issue of climate change, he said, had become a global phenomenon worsened by poor agricultural practices such as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests among others.

Those practices cause enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to build up in the atmosphere, Chukwuemeka added.

The Secretary further explained that the concept of climate-smart agriculture being promoted by the FCT administration was aimed at increasing food production.

He said, “It is in this regard that the FCT administration directed that this sensitisation and awareness campaign be taken to all the 17 Chiefdoms of the FCT.

“This will enable the administration to educate the farmers and the general public on the adaptation and building of Resilient Agricultural and Food Security Systems, as well as the reduction of GHG emissions from Agricultural activities.’’

On his part, the Sa’peyi of Garki, Alhaji Usman Nga’kupi, emphasised the need for the FCT agriculture secretariat to establish a “Forestry Guard’’ to cut down encroachment in the territory adding that any practice that can negatively impact the environment and farming should be disallowed.