In the wheat fields of northern Nigeria’s Jigawa State, a transformation is taking root. Local farmers cultivate heat-tolerant wheat varieties that thrive despite temperatures reaching 40 °C. As seen in the aerial video, this represents just one facet of the country’s agricultural renaissance. With the launch of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Phase 1 program in Kaduna and Cross River States in April 2025, Nigeria is set to further revolutionize its agricultural sector through this $538 million initiative, which the African Development Bank Group is rolling out in collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria and State Governments and partners like the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and private sector leader ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms

Nigeria’s National Agricultural Growth Scheme—Agro-Pocket program is at the center of its agricultural transformation. Funded under the African Development Bank’s $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility, Nigeria launched this comprehensive initiative in response to high food price inflation in the country in 2023. The program relies on an innovative, information and communication technology-based “e-wallet” system, originally conceived by African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina when he served as Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister, to connect smallholder farmers directly with suppliers of seeds, fertilizers, and agro-chemicals.

Driving Agricultural Growth

The National Agricultural Growth Scheme—Agro-Pocket program builds on Nigeria’s previous Growth Enhancement Support Scheme, which reached 15 million farmers between 2013 and 2015. The program enhances transparency and efficiency by registering farmers, accrediting suppliers, and establishing agro-input centers for distribution across the country. One program key component is the Federal Government’s repurposed Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program—Phase 1 project, which established the digital portal for efficient farm input delivery.

Via the National Agricultural Growth Scheme—Agro-Pocket ’s digital platform, farmers receive subsidies directly, allowing them to purchase inputs at half the cost, with payments managed and tracked electronically by the Federal Government. This ensures that support reaches the intended beneficiaries while creating a verifiable system for distribution of agricultural inputs.

From Pilot to National Impact

Following a pilot phase in July and August 2023 that delivered agricultural inputs to 52,000 farmers across five Nigerian states, the National Agricultural Growth Scheme—Agro-Pocket program rapidly expanded. During the 2023/24 dry season, it provided inputs for wheat cultivation to 107,429 farmers across 15 States in Northen Nigeria. The maps and data visualizations highlight this impressive geographic expansion across Nigeria’s agricultural zones.

Expansion of wheat area production for 15 States of Northern Nigeria (2023–2024)

Expansion of National Agricultural Growth Scheme—Agro-Pocket yielded 600,000 tons of wheat, or approximately 10% of the country’s wheat demand—a significant step toward reducing dependence on imports. Building on this success, the African Development Bank supported the program through the 2024/25 wheat season through provision of early seed production and enhanced extension services, further boosting yields and farmer participation.

The program initially faced challenges including validating the registry of farmers, establishing redemption centers in remote areas, high input costs, network issues with communications providers, distribution center congestion, and instances of farmers reselling subsidized inputs intended solely for their use. Over the past two years, these challenges have been resolved through measures that include clustering farmers to prevent reselling and use of satellite mapping to track planted areas and yield estimates.

Meeting Ambitious Targets

In 2024, the National Agricultural Growth Scheme—Agro-Pocket program launched Phase 2 of its dry season farming initiative, successfully targeting the production of rice, and maize across 340,000 hectares. As depicted in the crop yield charts, the program has simultaneously supported dry- and wet-season farming throughout Nigeria, assisting 1.6 million smallholder farmers in cultivating 800,000 hectares of various crops.

By 2025, the program has achieved its goal of contributing to 8% of Nigeria’s total cereal  demand—fulfilling ambitious targets set two years earlier. Key lessons from the implementation highlight the need for financing mechanisms to support players along the agricultural value chain, the importance of strategic communication to effectively engage farmers and provide them with irrigation support, including pumps and subsidized fuel, to reduce production costs.

A Continent-wide Vision

Nigeria’s agricultural innovation trajectory aligns with African Development Bank’s broader Technology for African Agricultural Transformation flagship, also known as TAAT, launched in 2017. The infographics below/above demonstrate how TAAT has facil-itated the distribution of climate-smart, improved crop varieties and livestock breeds to more than 12 million farmers—increasing agricultural production by approximately 25 million tons with a market value of $2.8 billion.

Demonstrate a package of technologies—improved seeds, fertilizer, cultural practices; at least one demo trial for 300–500 ha of acreage of the target crop
Build supply chains for certified seeds of the improved varieties and fertilizer, including the last mile village agro-dealer network
Train the trainer (TOT) to develop a skilled cadre of extension workers who manage demo trials, hand-hold farmers and troubleshoot problems that farmers might experience

Provide credit for farmers to acquire critical technologies

Ensure fair prices so farmers get a fair return for their prices via commodity exchanges that incorporate warehouse receipt systems, floor prices from active purchase for national reserves and school feeding programs, and rural marketing centers with auction floors for price discovery.

To date, TAAT has integrated 236 seed-based technologies into 46 large-scale investment projects across 34 African countries. The program has demonstrated remarkable success in several countries. Ethiopia, for instance, has moved closer toward becoming a wheat exporter, Sudan has achieved record wheat production, and Zimbabwe attained food self-sufficiency.