Why Smart Irrigation Alone Will Not be Enough to Fight Hunger and Food Insecurity in Nigeria

Abstract

By the end of 2025, Nigeria is experiencing its worst food crisis in several decades. It is projected that 34.7 million Nigerians will be suffering from acute food insecurity in 2026, while food inflation is above 34 percent, with 129 million Nigerians living below the poverty line. Technologically advanced irrigation systems, including drip irrigation, soil moisture sensors, and automated water control, have the potential to increase agricultural production by 20-30 percent and irrigate an additional 1.2 million hectares. Currently, such technology is not available to small-scale farmers, who account for 70 percent of Nigeria’s food production. The major challenge is the prevailing sense of insecurity. In the first half of 2025 alone, over 6,800 people lost their lives in more than 4,672 violent attacks, representing a 19 percent escalation of violence compared to the previous year. Terrorists, armed robbers, and militias have rendered the North-East, North-West and Middle Belt regions unsafe. Farmers are kidnapped or killed, and farms destroyed and burnt down, as well as cattle rustled. Consequently, Nigeria loses 420,000 metric tons of wheat production every year in Borno State, while maize production in Zamfara and Katsina States declines by 50 percent, with post-harvest losses above 40 percent. A large portion of the violence is highly religious and ethnic in nature. Since 2009, Christian farming communities in states like Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Taraba have been subjected to sustained attacks that include the destruction of churches, massacres, and displacement. These attacks systematically destroy food systems by destroying barns, poisoning water sources and isolating farmers in displacement camps. Even in the absence of violence, a lack of infrastructure makes smart irrigation systems unfeasible. Nigeria loses 76.9 million metric tons of food valued at $9.1 billion each year because of post-harvest loss, while increasing costs of fuel, fertilizer, and transportation make it even harder on farmers. Technological interventions simply cannot work when farmers cannot safely access their farmland. Simply investing in technology will have little impact without addressing issues of security, rebuilding trust between farmers and herdsmen and improving rural infrastructure and peacebuilding initiatives. Only a comprehensive strategy integrating security, governance and technology has a chance of reversing Nigeria’s worsening food crisis.