ABU Development Economics Research Group organises endline dissemination workshop
The Development Economics Research Group (DERG), Department of Economics, Ahmadu Bello University, has organised an endline dissemination workshop on advancing local leadership, innovation, and networks.
The workshop took place on Tuesday 9th December, 2025 at the CBN Centre for Economics and Finance, Main Campus, Samaru Zaria.
Speaking at the occasion, the Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Prof Adamu Ahmed, disclosed that research was very close to the heart of the university.
Represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Advancement, Research and Innovation, Prof Sanusi Aliyu Rafindadi, the Vice-Chancellor acknowledged the resilience of the research group and support of the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED) from the beginning to the end.
Prof Ahmed appreciated the leadership of the Department of Economics throughout the conduct of the research.
He said the research was having an impact on local and global communities.
The Vice-Chancellor said the research addressed the impact of climate change on food security, which is a global problem.
In a presentation, the former Dean of the Faculty of Management Sciences, Prof Idris Ahmed, said agriculture was central to the advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Prof Idris identified temperature increases, rain-fed vulnerability, yield volatility, rising economic losses, and increasing incidence of drought as the major climate threats to agricultural productivity.
According to Idris, agricultural insurance was a financial product that protect farmers and agribusiness against losses from risk and disaster.
Presenting the ALL-IN Project, the Principal Investigator of the research, Prof Peter Njiforti, argued that Nigeria’s Sudano-Sahelian zone faces mounting climate challenges that threaten agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods.
Prof Njiforti maintained that farmers in this region contend with highly variable rainfall patterns, frequent droughts, and increasing temperature extremes that create substantial production risks for staple crops like millet and sorghum.
According to him, these climate risks are projected to intensify under climate change scenarios, making effective risk management tools increasingly critical for agricultural sustainability and food security.
He said traditional risk management strategies, including crop diversification, informal mutual assistance networks and asset accumulation, provide limited protection against covariate weather shocks that affect entire communities simultaneously.
The Principal Investigator concluded that the research demonstrated that mutual weather-index insurance significantly increases farmers’ willingness to participate in future Takaful insurance programmes, particularly when interventions are implemented with high quality in favourable geographic contexts.
In a closing remark, a Co-Principal Investigator of the research, Dr Muhammad Kabir Salihu, announced that they would be patenting the research through the National Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC).
Dr Salihu thanked the Vice-Chancellor, the University Management, and the Department of Economics for their unwavering support towards the success of the research.
He thanked all the workshop participants, farmers and all states representatives for participation.
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Public Affairs Directorate,
Office of the Vice-Chancellor,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (AHW)
Sunday 14th December, 2025
