Growers in Nigeria are suffering huge losses due to a disruption of farming seasons caused by unusual and extreme weather conditions. Mallika Nocco, an assistant professor and extension specialist in agricultural water management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called this “weather whiplash,” a pattern in which extreme weather conditions are recorded in quick succession of one another — increased maximum temperatures followed by lower temperatures, heavy rainfalls and floods transitioned into dry spells and vice versa. A map showing the European Commission Humanitarian Response (ECHO) to flooding in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad in 2022. Image by ERCC – Emergency Response Coordination Centre via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-4.0). “This is what we mean by weather whiplash,” said Nocco, who was a panelist at an April 9 climate change and agriculture webinar organized by SciLine, a journalist research service through the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “It’s a collision of these unexpected conditions and this rapid back-and-forth swing in weather. What that means, in terms of productivity … flooding, following drought, it can disrupt planting. It can disrupt water transfering cycles, any sort of preseason activities. Drought, obviously, can further stress areas that don’t have irrigation, or areas that have irrigation and limited water resources. In an interview with Mongabay, Rosemary Obi, a farmer from Bayelsa in southern Nigeria, described the conditions Nocco explained as the current reality there. It is almost impossible to farm in Bayelsa now, she said. “The rains come very late. We are experiencing very dry…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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