Experts have called for the transformation of well-crafted policies into actionable practices that can empower farmers to increase yields while protecting the environment.
At BusinessDay’s national workshop on ‘Air Pollution and Agricultural Productivity’ held on Thursday in Lagos, stakeholders emphasised that effective policy implementation and robust public-private partnerships are central to building a cleaner and more resilient agricultural sector.
Nenibarini Zabbey, Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), represented at the event, underscored the importance of collaboration in achieving sustainability.
“In ensuring sustainable agricultural practices, we have engaged in several remediation projects aimed at cleaning up oil-polluted lands and ensuring they are certified by relevant agencies like NOSDRA for agricultural use,” he said.
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“These achievements are possible only through the strategic partnerships we’ve built across government agencies, tertiary institutions, and farmers,” he added.
Abiodun Olorundero, Founder and Managing Partner of Prasinos Farms, noted that partnerships need not be limited to formal institutions.
“Partnerships aren’t always about big organisations like the Bank of Agriculture — they can start with family and friends,” he explained.
“When I started, my family and friends were my strongest partners in funding, as access to institutional finance was difficult,” he said.
Similarly, Bankole Oloruntoba, Country Lead at the Nigeria Climate Innovation Center (NCIC), stressed the power of cooperative models in enabling access to finance.
“It’s easier for farmers to access funds when they come together to form cooperatives,” he stated.
“Cooperatives strengthen farmers’ capacity to pool resources, support one another, and attract investor funding,” he explained.
On the policy front, Terry Akaluzia, team lead for Mergers, Acquisitions and Private Equity Practice at Olaniwun Ajayi, pointed out that Nigeria’s challenge is not the absence of policies but their weak implementation.
“Nigeria is not policy-deficient; implementation is the major challenge,” he said. “Until policies are translated into enforceable laws, implementation will remain ineffective, as fragmented legal frameworks stall progress,” he added.
Experts agreed that translating strategic intent into coordinated action through inclusive partnerships and enforceable policies would be pivotal to ensuring sustainable agriculture and reducing environmental pollution in Nigeria.
How pollution undermine farmers’ productivity
Air pollution and land degradation have emerged as two of the most pressing challenges undermining farmers’ productivity, health, and incomes across Nigeria’s agricultural landscape. Experts say these threats, driven largely by human activities, are altering local climatic conditions and diminishing yields.
Key contributors include overgrazing, deforestation for food and fuel, excessive pesticide and herbicide use, oil spills, and widespread gas flaring — the most critical of them all.
According to the World Bank, global gas flaring reached 150 billion cubic meters, emitting an estimated 389 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Arinze Nwokolo, Assistant Professor at Lagos Business School, highlighted the severe impact of gas flaring on agricultural productivity, particularly in Nigeria’s oil-producing states.
“For every farmer within a 20km radius of a gas flaring site, agricultural productivity and crop yield decline by 18 percent — a significant loss for our food security agenda,” he said, citing data from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
“Gas flaring is more common among local oil explorers than multinational firms,” he added. “Most importantly, there’s hardly any serious penalty for gas flaring because our regulations are weak. Companies are charged as little as $2 per 228.317 standard cubic meters of flared gas, even after producing up to 50,000 barrels per day,” Nwokolo explained.
Olorundero, earlier quoted, shared personal experiences of losses linked to climate impacts from air pollution and land degradation.
“After weeks and months of irrigation, I woke up to realise my 10-acre farmland had completely withered,” he recounted. “This is clearly an environmental factor — I did everything right in terms of manure, irrigation, and seed planting,” he said.
“Most worrying is the low yield. Imagine we’re still talking about one ton of maize per hectare, while South Africa produces up to 12 tons,” Olorundero added.
Other challenges farmers face
Experts highlighted key challenges confronting farmers, including skill gaps, limited access to extension services and funding, poor-quality seedlings, erratic rainfall, floods, droughts, post-harvest losses, weak logistics, and inadequate large-scale distribution of vital inputs such as organic manure.
Overcoming challenges, the sustainable approach
Experts have outlined several sustainable practices to help farmers to overcome productivity challenges and build climate-resilient agricultural systems in Nigeria.
They emphasised the adoption of organic manure instead of chemical fertilizers, strengthening local partnerships, and training more agricultural extension workers to bridge knowledge gaps and keep farmers informed. Addressing skill shortages in operating and maintaining modern farm equipment were also identified as critical.
“Skill gaps are a major challenge that must be addressed. People need training on how to use and repair modern facilities,” Olorundero stated.
“I remember when one of our machines broke down. We searched across the country and couldn’t find anyone to fix it — I eventually had to bring a technician from Uganda,” he added.
Oloruntoba underscored the importance of cooperative models for smallholder farmers.
“There are countless disaggregated smallholder farmers scattered across the country. Adopting cooperative models boosts their capability and improves access to funding,” he noted.
Other environmentally-friendly solutions recommended by experts include use of battery-powered tricycles for short-distance transport, installation of solar-powered cold rooms to reduce post-harvest losses, and conversion of agro-waste into briquettes as a clean biofuel source.
“Every technology adopted for remediation must be environmentally friendly — that is the surest path to a sustainable agricultural future,” added Zabbey.
