Nigeria

Mapping supply chains, cost structure analysis, and investment priorities for food system transformation under conflict and climate stress in northern Nigeria

Harnessing solar-powered irrigation in Nigeria: Fix the “missing middle” to scale solar-powered small-scale irrigation for food security, jobs, and climate resilience

Key Messages – Nigeria irrigates only a sliver of its farmland. Just 3.9 percent of the country’s 76 million agricultural plots are irrigated, while more than 90 percent of agricultural output depends on increasingly erratic rainfall. – The country’s potential gains from irrigation are among the largest in Africa. About 1 million hectares could profitably be brought under small-scale irrigation in the dry season, backed by abundant sunshine and shallow groundwater across the north. – Solar is now the smart energy choice. Since the removal of the petrol subsidy in 2023, fuel based pumping has become far more expensive; solar pumps can cut operating costs by an estimated 60–80 percent and emissions by more than 95 percent. – The binding constraint is not the farmer but the “missing middle.” This includes fragmented public mandates, risk-averse lenders, thin and unregulated supply chains, gender exclusion, and missing data. – Government should build the middle, not just buy pumps. These efforts must include setting up a standing coordination platform, de-risking finance with harvest-synced repayment, enforcing equipment quality, investing in data as a public good, and designing for women, youth, and ground water safety from the start.

Selling better rather than growing more: Mixed-methods evidence on a private digital advisory platform for smallholders in northern Nigeria

Private digital agricultural platforms have proliferated across sub-Saharan Africa, yet rigorous evidence on farm-level outcomes and the conditions necessary for equitable distribution of benefits remains scarce. This paper provides a mixed-methods evaluation of Crop2Cash (C2C), a Nigerian agri-fintech enterprise delivering bundled “phygital” services—comprising AI-powered and human advisories, input marketplaces, credit scoring services, and e-wallet services accessible on basic feature phones. Combining a quasi-experimental research design, household survey, and qualitative data across Kaduna, Jigawa, and Niger States, we estimate the average and heterogeneous treatment effects of C2C services. Users averaged NGN 161,520 (USD 106) more in crop sales value than comparable non-users. These sales gains were driven primarily by marketing improvements—stemming from better price information, postharvest techniques, and market linkages—along with productivity gains for some crops and farmers. Conversely, we find no significant average effect on crop productivity or the adoption of 19 promoted sustainable agricultural practices. Despite high reported registration numbers, actual service uptake remains limited, particularly among women.