By Shuaib S. Agaka

Food is one of the basic necessities of life that every living being needs, in order to remain alive and become relevant in contributing towards societal productivity.

However, a lot of problems and challenges have been hindering the full realisation of the potential attributed to the agricultural sector in Nigeria and other developing countries, thereby making the project of food security unattainable.

In a positive light, a quiet revolution is underway, powered not by traditional tools alone, but by the digital innovations of the 21st century. At the heart of this transformation lies a strategic partnership between Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aimed at catalyzing progress in digital agriculture and ensuring food security across the nation.

This partnership represents a pivotal shift in agricultural practices, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to address age-old challenges and usher in a new era of sustainability and productivity.

Nigeria with its vast agricultural potential and growing population, faces a pressing need to modernize its farming practices to meet the demands of the food market. The integration of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and blockchain into agriculture holds the promise of unlocking unprecedented efficiencies and insights.

Through the collaborative efforts of NITDA and USAID, these technologies can be harnessed to empower farmers, improve crop yields, optimize resource utilization, and enhance overall agricultural resilience.

By leveraging the expertise and resources of NITDA and USAID, Nigeria is poised to tap into the transformative potential of digital solutions tailored specifically for the agricultural domain. These solutions are designed to empower farmers, increase efficiency along the value chain, promote inclusive growth, and foster resilience in the face of evolving environmental and economic challenges.

One of the key pillars of this digital revolution in agriculture is the deployment of IoT solutions across farming landscapes. IoT-enabled sensors embedded in soil and crops will offer real-time data on moisture levels, nutrient content, and disease prevalence. This data, transmitted and analyzed through interconnected systems, enables farmers to make informed decisions regarding irrigation schedules, fertilizer application, and disease management.

The advent of IoT-enabled precision agriculture extends beyond basic monitoring to encompass predictive analytics and automated control systems. By analyzing data on environmental factors, crop health indicators, pest infestations, and equipment performance, farmers can proactively address challenges and optimize interventions. For example, predictive models can forecast disease outbreaks based on weather patterns, enabling measures such as targeted pest control or disease-resistant crop varieties.

Additionally, one of its significant advantages in agriculture is its ability to enhance resource efficiency and sustainability. By precisely monitoring soil conditions, water usage, and nutrient levels, farmers can optimize inputs such as fertilizers and irrigation, reducing waste and environmental impact. This not only conserves resources but also contributes to cost savings and long-term soil health, crucial factors for sustainable farming practices.

Moreover, the scalability of IoT solutions further enhances their impact across different scales of agricultural operations. From smallholder farms to large agribusiness enterprises, IoT technologies can be tailored to meet specific needs and challenges.

Complementing IoT advancements is the transformative potential of AI in agriculture, a domain where data-driven insights can unlock significant value. AI algorithms analyze vast datasets collected from farms, weather stations, and satellite imagery to generate actionable recommendations for farmers. From predicting optimal planting times and identifying crop diseases early to optimizing supply chain logistics and predicting market trends, AI empowers farmers with precision tools for decision-making, mitigating risks, and maximizing returns on investments.

At the core of AI-driven agriculture lies the ability to process vast amounts of data collected from diverse sources such as satellites, drones, IoT sensors, and farm machinery. These data streams encompass a range of variables including weather patterns, soil characteristics, crop health indicators, and pest infestations. By ingesting, processing, and analyzing this data in real time, AI systems can generate valuable recommendations and alerts for farmers, enabling them to make informed decisions promptly.

Also, AI in agriculture can be predictive modeling, where algorithms forecast outcomes based on historical data and current environmental conditions. For example, AI models can predict optimal planting times, recommend crop varieties suited to specific soil types, and forecast yield expectations based on weather forecasts and agronomic factors. By integrating these predictions into farm management practices, farmers can optimize input use, minimize risks, and maximize productivity across their operations.

AI-powered image recognition and analysis techniques can also play a crucial role in monitoring crop health and detecting pest or disease outbreaks early. By analyzing aerial or ground-based imagery captured by drones or satellites, AI algorithms can identify subtle changes in plant foliage, detect anomalies indicative of pest infestations or nutrient deficiencies, and alert farmers to take targeted corrective actions. This proactive approach not only minimizes yield losses but also reduces the reliance on chemical inputs, promoting sustainable farming practices.

The integration of AI extends beyond on-farm operations to encompass supply chain optimization and market intelligence. AI-driven logistics and inventory management systems can optimize storage conditions, transportation routes, and distribution networks for agricultural products, reducing waste and ensuring timely delivery to markets. Moreover, AI-powered market analysis tools provide farmers with insights into price trends, demand fluctuations, consumer preferences, and market opportunities, empowering them to make strategic marketing and pricing decisions.

Also, on the other hand, blockchain technology can revolutionise transparency, traceability, and trust within agricultural value chains as it is one of the primary challenges in traditional supply chains.

This opacity not only hampers consumer confidence but also creates inefficiencies and vulnerabilities such as counterfeiting and supply chain disruptions. Blockchain technology addresses these challenges by creating a tamper-proof and verifiable record of every transaction and process involved in the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural goods.

By recording transactions, contracts, and product provenance on tamper-proof distributed ledgers, blockchain ensures authenticity and accountability from farm to fork. Farmers, consumers, retailers, and regulators can verify the quality, origin, and ethical standards of agricultural products, enhancing market access, reducing food fraud, and fostering fair trade practices.

Additionally, farmers can digitally register their produce at the point of harvest, capturing essential data points such as location, time, crop variety, farming practices, and quality parameters. This data, once recorded on the blockchain, becomes immutable, ensuring that subsequent transactions and transformations along the supply chain are traceable back to their origin.

This level of transparency instils trust among consumers who can access detailed information about the journey of their food from farm to table, including certifications, sustainability practices, and ethical standards.

Moreover, blockchain facilitates seamless and secure transactions throughout the supply chain, delays, and costs associated with traditional paper-based processes and intermediaries. Smart contracts, programmable agreements executed automatically when predefined conditions are met, streamline payment processes, facilitate real-time settlements, and ensure fair compensation for farmers based on agreed-upon terms such as quality standards, delivery timelines, and pricing mechanisms.

Also, it should be noted that the success of any agricultural innovation hinges not only on its technological prowess but also on its ability to scale impact and reach diverse stakeholders across the agricultural value chain. Scaling the impact of digital innovations in agriculture requires a multifaceted approach that addresses infrastructural challenges, fosters collaboration among stakeholders, promotes policy coherence, and ensures inclusive access to technology and knowledge.

At the core of scaling impact is the need for robust infrastructure, particularly in rural areas where agriculture thrives. Access to reliable electricity, internet connectivity, and digital infrastructure forms the backbone of digital agriculture initiatives. Collaborative efforts between government agencies, private sector partners, and development organizations are essential to bridge the digital divide and ensure that farmers in remote areas can harness the full potential of digital tools and platforms.

The convergence of digital innovation and agriculture in Nigeria represents not just a technological revolution, but a societal transformation towards sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems that nourish communities, empower farmers as stewards of the land, and safeguard the planet for future generations.

As NITDA continues to collaborate, innovate, and co-create solutions, the vision of a thriving, digitally empowered agricultural sector in Nigeria becomes not just an aspiration but a tangible reality poised to shape the future of food and prosperity in Nigeria and beyond.

Shuaib S. Agaka, a tech journalist, writes from PRNigeria Centre Kano

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With over 70 million arable land enough to feed not just Nigeria but Africa, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said that the Agency is willing to partner with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and relevant stakeholders to tackle food insecurity in Nigeria.

The Director General made this known while receiving representatives from USAID led by Josh Woodard Senior Digital Advisor Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security, at the Agency’s Corporate Headquarters in Abuja. The purpose of the visit was to have a rapid landscape assessment of digital agriculture in Nigeria and partner with NITDA.

Inuwa said, “One of President Tinubu’s areas of focus is boosting agriculture to achieve food security, and at NITDA we were set up to develop the National IT Policy, and IT policy is not just about developing IT but developing IT to boost productivity across all critical sectors including agriculture.”

“That is why we do a lot of initiatives in trying to see how we can build an agriculture Strategy with IT in mind and make it a more attractive business to the younger generation,” he added.

Inuwa stated that NITDA has identified six emerging technologies, that will aid in achieving food security in Nigeria. He said “We have an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy co-creation workshop going on, which started on Monday, where we are working with the ecosystem to develop a strategy on how to use AI in agriculture, health, education, and so on.

“We are working on how to use the Internet of Things, (IoT) in agriculture for crop monitoring, soil monitoring, precision irrigation, climate monitoring livestock monitoring, and so on.”

“We are working using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, (UAVs) to facilitate pest detection, water control, yield assessment, and so on.”

We are working on using Blockchain for the traceability of farm produce from farm to store, record keeping, quality assurance, and so on.”

“We are working on using Robotics to enhance productivity in agriculture in terms of automation of physical farm processing like weeding, harvesting, tractors, and many more.”

“For additive manufacturing, we are working on using it to upscale our manufacturing industry in the Agricultural sector for the production of crop and soil monitoring devices, customised equipment, and many more.”

Speaking on NITDA’s commitment to ensuring that Nigeria develops its digital offering in-country, Inuwa noted that the Nigeria Startup Portal was launched during the week with over 12,000 startups registered so far. He said they would be labelled after which they could have access to incentives.

Earlier Josh Woodard, USAID said that the meeting was to enable USAID to have first-hand information on what Nigeria is doing in digital farming to see how to enhance the integration of digital technology in agriculture.

He revealed that USAID recently launched the Global Food Security Strategy for Nigeria (2024 -2029) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

He said, “We want to work with all stakeholders to ensure food security in Nigeria.”

The meeting discussed the National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA) in relation to the success stories the initiative has recorded, the expansion strategy it is adopting and call on the USAID to be part of the initiatives.

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TECHDIGEST – HerVest, a social enterprise dedicated to providing financial inclusion for women through a Gender Lens Investment (GLI) approach and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has launched a social initiative dedicated to the training of female farmers on agronomy and financial literacy across key Nigerian states.

The social initiative tagged Fund a Female Farmer has touched 2,680 women farmers across five key Nigerian states – Benue, Oyo, Niger, Kaduna and Kwara – in a bid to increase agricultural productivity and yield among smallholder female farmers through expert knowledge and applied best practices covering rice, maize, and soya beans production.

So far, the 2,680 smallholder women farmers who have benefited from the intensive, standardized training outreach backed by the USAID funding boost to HerVest are from Benue State (200); Oyo State (260); Niger State (250); Kaduna State (970) and Kwara State (1,000).

Out of the 2,680 smallholder women farmers who have undergone the USAID funded training, HerVest at the completion of the exercise, has provided financing to 500 smallholder women farmers, with plans underway to finance all the female farmers by end of Q2 2022.

Commenting on the development, Solape Akinpelu, the CEO and Co-founder, HerVest, said; “We are pleased with the successes we have achieved in impacting more Nigerian women farmers through the boost from USAID especially as it helps put more of the smallholder women farmers through the best agronomy practices in the wake of current economic realities. The need to train and finance smallholder female farmers in Nigeria is very critical at this stage of economic recovery post-COVID-19 pandemic.”

She added that; “At the end of the first phase of the exercise, 85% of 2,680 female farmers have expressed increased knowledge on agronomy and financial literacy. This has further renewed our commitment to ensuring more of these women farmers have the right information at all times to help them make better business decisions.”

For the actualisation of this laudable target-specific training programme, HerVest has secured partnerships with state and local government agencies and private organisations such as Kwara State Government; Cofarms Limited; Farming Cooperatives; Olam; Labana rice and Chi Farms in a bid for an inclusive effort to reach more women at all levels.

HerVest is an inclusive digital platform that provides financial growth services to underserved and excluded African women through target savings, impact investing and credit financing- specifically for women farmers in Nigeria.

So far, HerVest has impacted over 5,000 thousand female farmers across Borno, Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Niger, Oyo, Kwara, and Ogun States.

HerVest has over 20,000 women community members achieving financial wellness through competitive returns on target savings, agro investments, and gender-driven financial literacy resources.

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TECH DIGEST – The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is warning that Microsoft has uncovered a widespread malicious email campaign undertaken by the hacking group- NOBELIUM.

The cybercriminals leveraged the legitimate mass-mailing service, to masquerade as a US-based development organisation and distribute malicious URLs to a wide variety of organisations especially government organisations, non-government organizations (NGOs), think-tanks, military, IT service providers, health technology and research, and telecommunications providers.

“Their antics involve the use of emails claiming to be an alert from USAID about new documents published by former President Donald Trump about “election fraud,” NITDA reveals in a statement by Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Mrs. Hadiza Umar.

Once users click the link in the email, the URL would direct them to the legitimate Constant Contact Service and then redirect to Nobelium-controlled infrastructure through a URL that delivers a malicious ISO file. This in turn, enables the criminals to execute further malicious objectives, such as lateral movement, data exfiltration and delivery of additional malware.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), advises Nigerians to be wary of such criminals masquerading as USAID and follow the following recommendations:

• Turn on cloud-delivered protection in Microsoft Defender Antivirus or the equivalent to cover rapidly evolving attacker tools and techniques.
• Run EDR in block mode to enable antivirus block malicious artifacts (EDR in block mode works behind the scenes to remediate malicious artifacts that are detected post-breach.)
• Enable network protection to prevent applications or users from accessing malicious domains and other malicious content on the Internet.
• Enable investigation and remediation in full automated mode to allow antivirus take immediate action on alerts to resolve breaches.
• Use device discovery to increase your visibility into your network by finding unmanaged devices on your network and onboarding them
• Enable multifactor authentication (MFA) to mitigate compromised credentials.
  Block all Office applications from creating child processes.
  Users and administrators are advised to review and apply the above mitigations.

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