M. Rafee Majid

The role of afforestation programme in combating desertification in Nigeria

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which an afforestation programme as spelt out in the Forestry II programme has checked the encroachment of desert in the arid and semi‐arid zone of northern Nigeria.Design/methodology/approach – The study is carried out in the afforestation project states aimed at evaluating the success/failure of the program. Field observation and a site visit are conducted on some communities as well as policies relevant to forestry sector are reviewed.Findings – The preliminary findings of this paper indicate that the afforestation projects had a positive impact on both biophysical and socioeconomic environment and contributed to the sustainability of the afforestation programme.Research limitations/implications – This paper is primarily focused on the various components of the Forestry II programme and the extent they have helped in combating desertification.Originality/value – The paper addresses the need for sustainable afforestation projects and disc...

Drought and desertification management in arid and semi-arid zones of Northern Nigeria

Purpose – This paper seeks to review the state of desertification in Nigeria, historical trends and past national efforts as well as ongoing programs for combating the fast-spreading desert conditions in the arid zones of the country. Design/methodology/approach – The approach has been carried out through a comprehensive review analysis and detailed assessment on several methods of approach which includes archival materials as well as published government documents, field observation and learned background information of the working and funding dynamics of the program to combat desertification. Findings – The findings of this paper reveal that the failure of the past government effort in combating desertification in Nigeria is a result of the policies and the programs not having been designed to adequately tackle the problem of drought and desertification and of the phenomena being treated as sectoral issues rather than an integrated whole. Practical implications – This paper has practical implication for...

A comprehensive approach to drought and desertification in Nigeria: A brief evaluation of government policies

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate current government policies in combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought. This paper discusses the menace of desertification, the extent and the impact of drought in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approach – The research reported in this paper was undertaken through review of existing literature, personal observations and interview with some of the residents in the affected areas as well as government officials in charge of programs in combating desertification.Findings – The paper observes that the failure of current government policies include among others the top‐down approach, inconsistencies of government policies, neglect of indigenous knowledge, use of inappropriate technology, sectoral approach, inadequate funding, and inadequate awareness. Having identified the causes of the problem, this paper proposes that the national policy for drought and desertification should ensure sustainable development based on proper management ...

Relationship between land use composition and PM10 concentrations in Iskandar Malaysia

Air pollution has always been a concern with increasing urbanization and poor land use planning adding to the problem. This study sets out to investigate the relationship between land use composition of an area and its ambient concentration of 10-μm-or-less particulate matter (PM10). For this study, Iskandar Malaysia has been chosen as the study area. To compensate for the limited number of air quality monitoring stations in the study area, Terra MODIS aerosol optical depth Level 2 products are used to assess PM10 concentration spatially. Land use data were developed from LANDSAT images used together with the land use database from the local authority. Finally, the relationship between land use composition and concentrations of PM10 in the study area are explained using contour ternary plots. The plots show how different compositions of three major urban land uses (residential, commercial, industrial) in an area results in different concentration levels of PM10. Concentrations of PM10 are evidently more affected by commercial land use, followed by industrial land use. Hence, responsible authorities in Iskandar Malaysia could control or reduce air pollution in an area by planning a better land use composition.

Assessing the vulnerability of farmers, fishermen and herdsmen to climate change: a case study from Nigeria

This paper describes a study on the vulnerability of farmers and fishermen to climate change and the conflict arises between farmers and herdsmen, in Nigeria. A random sampling survey was carried out in some selected rural communities where 200 farmers and fishermen were interviewed and discussions with community focus groups to ascertain the level of their understanding of climate change issues. The study observed that the majority of the farmers had a good understanding of the changes in the climate through their personal observation, intervention of some research institutes and discussion in various cooperative society meetings. However, climate change has greatly impacted crop production with more than 50% reduction in produce, but not very much change has occurred to fish production. This study further noted that the respondents are faced with increased variations in rainfall and temperature patterns and are yet to have good adaptive measures to the current and expected changes. This paper has recommended the use of agroforestry programme, or tree cropping system, which is a potential strategy to help farmers reduce their vulnerability to climate-related hazards and sustainable fish farming to minimising the vulnerability of fishermen to climate disasters.

Integrating manual calibration and auto-calibration of SWAT model in Muar Watershed, Johor

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a freely accessible hydrological modeling tool designed to simulate the impact of land-cover changes on hydrological processes over a continuous period. To test its performance in tropical climate conditions, the hydrological processes of the upper Muar watershed (UMW), Malaysia was modeled for land cover data in the year 1984. The SWAT model was run using 42 years of daily climate data from 1970 to 2011, with a six-year warm-up period (1970 to 1975). Manual calibration and auto-calibration using Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI-2) were coupled to optimize the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) value. Parameter CN2, CANMX, SOLAWC, GWREVAP and GWQMN are five of the most sensitive parameters for UMW. Meanwhile, EPCO, GWDELAY and CHN(2), found as less sensitive parameters to be adjusted. The value of NSEcalibration-validation = 0.71 & 0.62, and R2calibration-validation = 0.74 & 0.68 indicate of satisfied results obtained. The P-factor and R-factor for calibration was 0.92 and 1.77 respectively and P-factor=0.94, R-factor = 2.04 during validation period. This study therefore suggests that manual and auto-calibration approaches are suitable to be integrated to optimize NSE and R2 values. These goodness-of-fit statistics, supported by graphical representations, showed that the SWAT model could simulate a tropical watershed with reasonable accuracy.

Assessing the impact of forestry II program on agricultural productivity in the arid zone of Nigeria: A case of Kano and Jigawa state

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the sustainability of a forestry management strategy in checkmating desert encroachment and it also examines the impacts of the Forestry II program on agricultural productivity in the rural communities. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a quantitative approach in assessing the rural farmers’ level of participation in the Forestry II program in which 201 respondents were interviewed in the study area. Structured questionnaires’ were also administered to afforestation officials/extension workers in the two states regarding the different components of the projects and probable cause(s) of failures/successes as well as the level of involvement of the community in the project. Field observations of the project sites were also carried out with a view to examining the level of achievements on the physical components of the projects. Findings – The findings of this study revealed that, involvement of the stakeholders and participation of the community...