Name: Abdgofar Saheed Adeymola
Age: 27
Country: Nigeria
I am Abdgofar Saheed Adeymola 500level student of Ecotourism and Wildlife Management from the Federal University of Technology Akure Nigeria
Nature has influenced the way I think about and address the climate crisis in many ways, among which is the consumption of beef. There is a time I sat down and regurgitate about the wide consumption of cow meat in my town, then on a large scale to my local government area, to my state, to Nigeria, Africa and the globe. I start to imagine how we consume those meat and the crisis between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria. The same thing is happening in other countries of the world. A cow can not give birth to two calves at once and it will take up to three years before another birth. How do nature provide this and yet cow is not listed among the red list of endangered species. This stimulate my attention to snail farming. I try to set up a backyard snail farming in my lodge while I was in 300level. Whenever it rains, I will go into the bush and fetch snails, and at times, I would saw them crawling around the bathroom pipes, I keep on assembling them and feed them with pawpaw leaves and other vegetables, I haven't take a stock count of them until a time comes when some final year students called me and asked if I can direct them to where they can get juvenile snails. It triggers my attention and I get them samples of the size I have. They were so excited and paid #200 per juvenile snail. I was able to sell 76 pieces out of those I have. It now left with 16 adult snails and over 700 fry. I never knew I could make as much as #14000 ( fourteen thousand Naira) from sailry. Since then, I have been sharing this entrepreneurship ideas to students and mothers at school and homes as a means of sustainable livelihood without causing harm to biodiversity.
In my community, the major practice is small scale farming business with the idea of slash and burn. But the incorporation of climate smart agriculture practices is now gaining popularity among farmers through community mobilization for workshop and outreach programs. People have changed to inter cropping systems and Apicultural production for effective utilization. Domestic waste have been identified by most people and are taking actions in sorting out their waste from organic to inorganic wastes.
I have performed in many rallies and outreach programs in sensitization but the first time was very challenging. I lack courage and composure then. But I thank God, it has become my blood today. It's something I preach and demonstrated everywhere I find myself. The main obstacle is inability to get time to follow up the target community and schools visited for the outreach due to rigorous academic calendar, but we still find time during our lecture free week and mid semester to ensure we demonstrate actions on climate change mitigation and adaptation. What helped most in the implementation is the availability of resources, both human and capital resources. It gives my comrades moral and keep ready whenever I called for their support
National and local legislation can best support nature based solutions if the community is carried along in decision making and make the aware of the benefit of conservation and preservation of nature endowment. The decisions should be a Bottom-Up approach and not other way round. People should be responsible for their actions and got compensated for protecting the nature.
Thank you for reading
Regards.
Abdgofar Saheed Adeymola