Posted on February, 12, 2025 at 08:01 pm
2024, Earth’s hottest year on record, saw a spate of unrelenting droughts, storms and floods that made it harder for small-scale and subsistence farmers worldwide.
Such challenges resonate particularly with Nigeria, home to more than 200 million people. 70% of its rural population depends on agriculture for a living.
As part of broader efforts towards food security, the African nation has improved its capacities in agricultural monitoring, disease identification and yield prediction, especially since joining the CropWatch Innovative Cooperation Programme – led by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) – in 2021.
One of the main features of the programme is the CropWatch cloud system, which provides real-time agro-climatic and agronomic assessments, including crop conditions, acreage, yield predictions as well as early warnings for pests and drought.
With this customizable system, Nigeria can generate high-resolution crop indicators at both national and local levels without incurring hefty IT infrastructure costs.
Powered by innovative technologies, the CropWatch programme helps Nigerian officials and experts better conduct independent fieldwork, collect and analyze agricultural data that feed into a quarterly bulletin to inform government policymaking.
Between January to April 2024, the bulletin revealed that rainy season in northern Nigeria arrived later than usual, with rainfall dipping 64% below the region’s 15-year norm and arable land reduced by 13% compared to its five-year average.
Armed with these insights, Nigeria guided farmers to mitigate potential loss due to the erratic weather.
“These technologies enable early warning detection and timely interventions, reducing the risk of crop failure,” said Director General Matthew Adepoju of Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), a leading partner to the CropWatch programme.
“By increasing productivity and resilience against climate change, we are ensuring a stable and secure food supply for millions of Nigerians.”
Looking ahead, Nigeria continues to refine its own CropWatch system to further tailor solutions to the needs of smallholder farmers.
The work also benefits from increasing inter-agency collaboration within the wider Nigerian government, pooling expertise from not only NASRDA, but also the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency.
Through the partnership with Nigeria, the CropWatch programme is expanding its impact across West Africa.
In July 2024, a training workshop took place in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, bringing together experts from eight African countries to boost the monitoring of ground nuts, yam, maize and rice – the region’s most important staple foods.
The workshop also launched the West African regional centre of excellence for CropWatch, hosted by NASRDA.
Through this initiative, Nigeria shares its expertise with neighboring countries, shoring up South-South cooperation to combat food insecurity.
“The CropWatch programme is more than a technological innovation – it’s a testament to the power of collaboration in overcoming regional challenges,” said Nigeria’s Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Uche Geoffrey Nnaji.
The CropWatch programme is implemented in the context of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, to which UN Trade and Development provides secretariat support.
The programme operates in partnership with the Alliance of International Science Organizations and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
It works to bolster the global goal of zero hunger, by helping developing nations tap into frontier technologies for more sustainable and resilient agriculture.
17 African and Asian economies have benefitted so far: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Syria, Thailand, Lebanon, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
More information is available online for countries that are interested in joining the programme.
Source: UNCTAD