Nigeria is expanding the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture, with new initiatives applying the technology to improve farm advisory services and convert oil palm waste into renewable energy.
The Federal Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are supporting efforts to introduce AI-enabled digital extension services to farmers, addressing one of the country's longstanding agricultural challenges: limited access to timely technical advice.
Under the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones programme, an AI advisory platform known as FarmerChat has been deployed in Kano and Ogun, providing farmers with information on weather, planting, pests and diseases through text, voice and images in Hausa and English. More than 20,000 farmers have reportedly been onboarded, alongside training for extension personnel.
The initiative is designed to complement, rather than replace, conventional extension workers, with agricultural institutions expected to validate the advice provided to farmers.
Meanwhile, Nigerian researchers are applying AI further down the agricultural value chain to tackle waste from the country's oil palm industry.
Researchers led by Dr Idowu Olugbenga Adewumi of the Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan, have developed an AI-based framework for optimising the conversion of oil palm empty fruit bunches into methane-rich biogas.
Their research combines anaerobic digestion with machine learning and optimisation techniques to identify operating conditions that can improve methane production. Laboratory trials recorded methane yields of up to 282.42 mL of methane per gram of volatile solids, highlighting the potential of palm-processing residues as an energy resource.
The research could become particularly relevant as Nigeria seeks to expand both its palm oil industry and renewable energy capacity. Converting processing waste into biogas could provide palm processors with an additional energy source while reducing the amount of agricultural residue that needs to be disposed of.
Together, the two initiatives point to a broader shift in how technology is being applied across Nigeria's agricultural economy, from helping farmers make better production decisions to extracting additional value from what would otherwise be waste.
NBF Insight
Nigeria's AI opportunity in agriculture may ultimately be less about sophisticated technology and more about solving everyday bottlenecks.
Better access to extension advice and greater value from agricultural waste are practical problems with significant economic consequences. The real test now is whether these innovations can move beyond projects and research into affordable, scalable tools used across farming communities and processing clusters.
