Beyond the Rain: Nigerian Farmers Reimagine Survival in a Climate of Change” By Shakirudeen Abdulazeez
The rhythm of Nigerian agriculture has always been set by the rain. For generations, its arrival and retreat dictated the planting and harvesting seasons, a reliable cycle that sustained millions. But that rhythm is breaking. Climate change is now the erratic conductor, orchestrating a new, more volatile score of inconsistent rainfall, prolonged dry spells, and devastating floods. This is not a future threat; it is the present reality, reshaping our harvest patterns and threatening our national food security.
In the heart of Ilorin, Kwara State, the story of Damilare Shakur, a young farmer and founder of BURST Foods and Farms, encapsulates this national struggle. His journey from despair to resilience is a microcosm of the challenge facing millions and a potential roadmap for our collective survival.
In May 2025, hope was high. Damilare planted maize on his one-hectare farm in Eiyenkorin, Asa LGA. The early rains were promising, and his seedlings sprouted in neat, vibrant rows. This, he believed, would be his breakthrough season. But by mid-July, the rhythm broke. The rains ceased abruptly, ushering in a dry spell that arrived earlier and lasted longer than any he could remember. For over six weeks, he stood powerless, watching his field wither under the unrelenting sun. His farm, like over 90% of Nigeria’s farmlands, was entirely rain-fed.
“I planted with confidence. The rain supported me at first,” Damilare recalled, the memory fresh with frustration. “Then the dry spell came and I watched the crop suffer. I realized how exposed we are when the weather shifts without warning.”
The result was a harvest of broken expectations. Yields were pitifully low. And when the rains finally returned in September, they came with a vengeance, making it impossible to dry his remaining maize under the sun—a traditional practice now rendered unreliable. His salvation came at the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute in Ilorin, where a parabolic solar dryer saved his grains from spoilage. Yet, this solution revealed another layer of the crisis: long queues of desperate farmers, a testament to the severe scarcity of such adaptive technologies.
Damilare’s ordeal is a national parable. It illustrates the vicious cycle confronting our food system: climate shocks lead to low yields; the lack of modern storage and processing infrastructure compounds the losses; and finally, farmers are forced into panic-selling when market prices crash, as Damilare experienced when the price of fresh maize plummeted. With over 25 million Nigerians at high risk of hunger, as reported by UNICEF in 2023, we can no longer afford to treat these as isolated incidents. They are connected symptoms of a system in peril.
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For many, such a cascade of setbacks would spell the end of their agricultural dream. But for Damilare, it became a catalyst for change. The turning point was a capacity-building program organized by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in collaboration with Waffle Integrated Limited. As a member of the Harvest Value Chain Cooperative Group Farming Society, he received not just theoretical knowledge on business planning, financial management, and value addition, but also practical tools—a grinding machine that empowered him to process his own produce.
This intervention was a game-changer. For the first time, Damilare felt empowered rather than vulnerable. He emerged with a new, resilient mindset and a concrete plan: to build a low-cost irrigation system to break his dependence on rain, explore community-based solar drying to avoid the queues at public facilities, and scale his value addition efforts to insulate himself from market volatilities.
Crucially, he understood that individual resilience is fragile. He began sharing his newfound knowledge with fellow farmers through his cooperative. “If we want to survive this new climate, we must support each other. We cannot continue with trial and error,” he asserted during a cooperative meeting. This shift from solitary struggle to collective action is the most critical adaptation of all.
Damilare’s story is both a warning and a direction. It warns that rain-fed agriculture is a gamble we can no longer afford. It warns that without widespread access to irrigation, modern storage, and processing technology, we are leaving our farmers—and our food supply—at the mercy of the elements.
But it also points the way forward. The solution lies in a multi-pronged approach:
1. Prioritize Climate-Smart Infrastructure: Government and private sector investment must aggressively expand access to small-scale irrigation, solar dryers, and cold storage facilities. These are not luxuries; they are the new tools for national food security.
2. Empower Through Cooperatives: Strengthening farmer cooperatives is the most effective way to disseminate knowledge, pool resources for technology acquisition, and create collective bargaining power in the market.
3. Scale Value Addition: Training and equipping farmers to process their raw produce into finished goods—from maize to cornmeal or ogi—insulates them from price crashes and creates more value within local economies.
Damilare is now preparing for the next season, his grains in storage awaiting a better price, his spirit fortified by a plan. He is no longer just waiting for rain; he is building his own weather. His vision is to make Ilorin a hub for youth-driven, climate-smart agriculture.
His journey teaches us that climate change has irrevocably changed the rules of the game. But it also proves that with the right support—irrigation, storage, value addition, and, most importantly, collective will—Nigerian farmers can still secure the harvest. The rain may have failed him, but his resolve did not. It is that resolve, replicated across millions of farms, that will ultimately secure Nigeria’s food future.
Shakirudeen Abdulazeez is a PRNigeria Fellow
