Economy

Digital Farming Can Tackle Nigeria’s Food Shortage

Published

8 years ago

19/09/2018

By Adeniyi Ogunfowoke

World food agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme have, on several occasions, raised an alarm over the looming and impending danger of food shortage in Nigeria. Both agencies, as of March 2018, said that it is possible for food shortage to affect 5.8 million Nigerians.

Despite the large expanse of land that cuts across the country from the North, South, East and West, it’s very shocking and rather sad that there’s not enough food to go round.

But then, this was not the case in the past. Agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy: groundnut pyramids from the north; cocoa from the west; and kola nut from the east.

In 1956, Nigeria struck something sweeter and juicier than agriculture. On that fateful day, in the village of Oloibiri, the country discovered oil and agriculture took a back seat.

The country literarily abdicated and abandoned every other sector for oil thus making the Nigerian economy a mono-product economy. From one oil boom to another, Nigeria was revelling in the pool of petrol dollars while agriculture that has the possibility of gainfully employing and feeding Nigerians took the backseat. Agriculture cried and cried for attention but was neglected. This is why some people have described oil as a ‘curse’ rather than a blessing to the country.

Now, agriculture is very frail and everyone including the government is running helter-skelter to revive it. And oil has lost its fanfare.

Interestingly, technology has a solution for almost every problem. In the case of agriculture, digital farming is the tech innovation being used to solve the Nigerian food crises. Digital farming or agriculture is the use of new and advanced technologies, integrated into one system, to enable farmers and other stakeholders within the agriculture value chain to improve food production.

How digital farming works

Technology as earlier said has a solution for almost everything. It simply depends on how you deploy it. For those who ‘hate’ farming, digital farming is perfect for you. And the story of digital farming is incomplete without referencing Farmcrowdy. Farmcrowdy can be described as the first digital farm in Nigeria.

With digital farming, you do not need to own a farm. You simply invest your money in any of the available farms advertised on the digital farm platform and at the end of the harvesting cycle, you get your return on investment plus interest. The reason why this works is that digital farm platform provides support for farmers to guarantee improved crop yield and preservation of harvest. This will, in turn, reduce food waste and increase food production.

The e-commerce is a foolproof business model that has been tried and tested by Jumia, Nigeria’s no 1 shopping destination and it has really been successful so far. As such, it is nonplus that the e-commerce business model is being replicated in other sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Can digital farming tackle food shortage in Nigeria?

Food shortage is a threat to Nigeria’s existence. This is not supposed to be the case in Nigeria because of the availability of large expanse of fertile lands. Thankfully, digital farming arrived and every Nigerian now has the opportunity to play a role in Agriculture even though they do not need to work on the farm. This is the real catch. Therefore, it is very possible for digital farming to tackle food shortage.

Digital farmers cannot do it alone. All stakeholders must come together to find a solution to the food shortage crises in Nigeria. For now, the digital farmers can only do as much.

Economy

FrieslandCampina, Three Others Trigger 0.46% Slip at NASD OTC Bourse

Published

1 hour ago

03/07/2026

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Four price decliners further weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.46 per cent on Thursday, July 2.

FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc went down by N5.55 to N146.46 per unit from N152.01 per unit, Nitrox Industrial Gases Plc fell by N1.10 to N20.30 per share from N21.40 per share, UBN Property Plc lost 11 Kobo to sell at N1.99 per unit versus the previous day’s N2.10 per unit, and Mass Telecoms Innovation Plc depreciated by 4 Kobo to 32 Kobo per share from 36 Kobo per share.

Consequently, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropped 19.74 points to close at 4,248.46 points compared with Wednesday’s closing value of 4,268.20 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N11.85 billion to N2.549 trillion from N2.561 trillion.

Yesterday, the volume of transactions went up by 92.9 per cent to 440,653 units from 229,238 units, and the number of deals rose by 77.8 per cent to 32 deals from 18 deals, while the value of trades contracted by 51.4 per cent to N10.5 million from N21.5 million.

At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units traded for N8.4 billion, trailed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units valued at N6.5 billion, and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc with 68.9 million units exchanged for N4.8 billion.

GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units transacted for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units sold for N415.7 million.

Economy

Customs Street Crumbles by 0.61% as Selling Pressure Persists

Published

1 hour ago

03/07/2026

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

The selling pressure on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited persisted on Thursday, causing a further decline of 0.61 per cent.

Data from Customs Street showed that the insurance counter lost 2.46 per cent, the banking space declined by 2.15 per cent, the industrial goods sector crumbled by 1.00 per cent, the energy index fell by 0.23 per cent, and the consumer goods segment crashed by 0.08 per cent.

As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) retreated by 1,368.10 points to 224,321.97 points from 225,690.07 points, and the market capitalisation moderated by N878 billion to N143.947 trillion from N144.825 trillion.

Trading data indicated investors bought and sold 855.4 million shares for N28.4 billion in 51,609 deals versus the 488.1 million shares worth N14.0 billion traded in 46,929 deals on Wednesday, showing a spike in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 75.25 per cent, 102.86 per cent, and 9.97 per cent, respectively.

The busiest stock for the session was Sterling Holdings, with a turnover of 459.6 million units worth N3.7 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 41.2 million units for N4.2 billion, Universal Insurance sold 30.2 million units valued at N25.2 million, Access Holdings traded 29.7 million units worth N654.9 million, and FCMB transacted 28.2 million units valued at N271.4 million.

Yesterday, 13 equities gained weight, while 34 equities shed weight, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.

Guinea Insurance lost 10.00 per cent to trade at 90 Kobo, International Energy Insurance slipped by 9.84 per cent to N5.22, The Initiates dropped 9.79 per cent to close at N23.50, Tantalizers declined by 9.52 per cent to N3.61, and NEM Insurance crashed by 9.25 per cent to N28.12.

On the flip side, Austin Laz gained 10.00 per cent to close at N3.63, Learn Africa also improved by 10.00 per cent to N9.90, DAAR Communications appreciated by 9.49 per cent to N1.50, UPDC soared by 9.09 per cent to N3.60, and Caverton flew higher by 8.51 per cent to N5.10.

Economy

Naira Appreciates to N1,370/$1 at NAFEX, N1,390/$1 at Black Market

Published

2 hours ago

03/07/2026

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira continued to gain ground against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), as it further chalked up N2.26 or 0.16 per cent to sell for N1,370.15/$1 on Thursday, July 2, in contrast to Wednesday’s rate of N1,372.41/$1.

However, this was not the case for the domestic currency against the Pound Sterling at the same market window, the official market. It lost N10.44 to close at N1,832.17/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,821.73/£1, and fell against the Euro by N2.91 to trade at N1,568.28/€1 compared with the N1,565.37/€1 it was traded at midweek.

But at the black market, the Nigerian Naira gained N5 against the US Dollar yesterday to quote at N1,390/$1 versus the preceding session’s N1,395/$1, and at the GTBank FX counter, it appreciated by N7 to settle at N1,382/$1 versus N1,389/$1.

There are expectations that the Naira will remain within range as pressure from people taking half-year profits has tapered down while continued stronger policy signals from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) back the market.

Data from the apex bank showed that interbank FX turnover declined to $85.517 million across 94 deals closed by financial institutions trading on behalf of their clients from $90.303 million the previous day.

The last two trading sessions have seen a sharp decline in interbank FX turnover, down from an intra-week high of $269.898 million, according to data obtained from the CBN.

Despite a sharp slowdown in CBN FX intervention, the broader expectation remains that the Naira will trade within a relatively stable range through the remainder of 2026.

As for the cryptocurrency market, a squeeze on bearish traders pushed Bitcoin (BTC) toward $62,000, capping the market’s first genuinely strong week since mid June. It improved its value by 1.8 per cent to $61,644.94.

Data from Coinglass showed that traders betting against crypto lost $281 million to liquidations over the past 24 hours, against $159 million in longs, out of $440 million in total forced closures across 95,690 traders.

Cardano (ADA) rose by 6.6 per cent to $0.1651, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 5.5 per cent to $1,716.65, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 4.2 per cent to $1.10, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 3.3 per cent to $0.0751, Solana (SOL) also chalked up 3.3 per cent to sell at $80.95, Binance Coin (BNB) added 2.0 per cent to close at $562.22, and TRON (TRX) jumped by 1.0 per cent to $0.3186, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.