The agricultural sector in Nigeria faces existing gaps between scientific research and on-the-ground farming practices. This gap limits farmers’ access to crucial information, knowledge, and skills that enhance productivity and enable the adoption of improved agricultural methods.
Low farmer productivity, limited access to essential inputs, and weak market linkages persist due to outdated practices, dilapidated infrastructure, and substantial post-harvest losses.
Agricultural extension services in Nigeria serve as a pathway to sustainable growth for the sector by effectively connecting farmers to essential inputs, knowledge, and markets.
To address these issues, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have emerged as a solution. The PPP’s primary function is to link public-sector resources and regulatory support with private-sector efficiency, technological innovation, and crucial funding. The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) is an example of such a collaborative effort, aiming to change access to inputs, markets, and skills for Nigerian farmers.
Agricultural extension services are a system that facilitates access to new knowledge, information, and technologies for farmers or their organisations, promoting interaction with research, education, agri-business, and other relevant institutions to assist them in developing their own technical, organisational, and management skills and practices.
Agricultural extension services offer advisory support to farmers, enabling them to enhance crop production, livestock management, and overall farming practices. These services include the transfer of knowledge, dissemination of new technologies, training, input supply, and market linkages aimed at enhancing farmers’ skills, productivity, and income.
Agricultural extension in Nigeria dates back to 1893 with the establishment of the botanical garden at Moor Plantation. It evolved from early colonial efforts, such as the “Master Farmer Approach,” which provided targeted support and logistical services, including farm planning, input supply, and credit provision, to selected farmers to boost production.
In the mid-1970s, following independence, agricultural extension focused on restoring commodity crop production in various regions but neglected food crops, which compromised food security. This led to the introduction of the Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs), which became the dominant force in public agricultural extension.
ADPs adopted the Training and Visit (T&V) system to increase extension efficiency through a unified command structure, systematic training, and focused geographic zones for extension workers. This era marked the establishment of a semi-autonomous extension service, separate from the Ministry of Agriculture, which integrated research and extension closely through state-agency linkages.
In response to identified shortcomings of the ADP, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) developed a National Extension Policy (NEP) in 2017 to establish a legislated, pluralistic, farmer-responsive, and market-oriented extension system, with a notable emphasis on integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) offer an innovative model for enhancing extension services, enabling the public and private sectors to achieve shared objectives in agricultural development. PPPs in Nigeria bridge resource deficits, foster innovation, and improve market linkages by addressing infrastructure shortcomings such as poor roads, limited water, unreliable power, and inadequate storage, which hinder cultivation, storage, and transportation, leading to post-harvest losses.
They improve access to finance for smallholders, facilitate modern farming through private technology companies, and connect farmers to local and international markets with fair pricing and strong value chains. PPPs also share and mitigate agricultural risks, attracting private investment.
Nigeria has seen a rise in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme, which improves farmer access to inputs, finance, and markets.
The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP)
The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) was launched on November 17, 2015, by President Muhammadu Buhari. The ABP is a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) initiative designed to connect smallholder farmers with reputable anchor companies, processors or off-takers of agricultural commodities.
The ABP provides loans to smallholder farmers in the form of seeds, fertilisers, agrochemicals and in cash to boost production, stabilise agro-processor input supply, reduce food imports, and conserve foreign reserves. Commodities targeted included cereals, roots and tubers, tree crops, legumes, and livestock.
A central feature of the ABP is its integration of input provision, market off-take, and mandated extension services. Anchors are contractually required to provide training on “Farming as a business,” “Improved agricultural practices,” and “Group management dynamics,” and to bear the associated costs. Extension services, delivered by Anchors or State Governments, are intended to ensure adherence to good practices and reduce side-selling.
Dr. Adeola Lordbanjou, Director of the Federal Department of Agricultural Extension, stated that, “Nigeria currently has an insufficient number of extension agents… we now have one extension agent to 10,000 households. This extension challenge is a major contributor to the low productivity in our agricultural sector.” This highlights the gap that PPPs are designed to fill.
The PPPs are not merely an alternative, but a necessary evolution, resulting from the persistent underperformance of a system that was once solely government-funded and operated.
The path forward lies in strategically designed Public-Private Partnerships that prioritise robust governance, transparency, and a genuine farmer-centric approach.
