The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has called for the development of an integrated digital system that will expand agricultural extension services and enable millions of Nigerian farmers to access reliable information more quickly.
The call was made at the 2026 Africa Agribusiness Extension Summit (AAES) in Abuja, organised by Extension Africa in partnership with NITDA.
NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, represented at the event by the Director of e-Government, Engr. Salisu Kaka, said Nigeria could no longer rely solely on traditional face-to-face extension services to meet the needs of its growing population of farmers.
He said emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI), could support existing extension workers by allowing farmers to access agricultural advice and information regardless of their location.
According to him, the focus should be on building a connected digital ecosystem rather than developing separate technology platforms that operate in isolation.
He identified interoperability, scalability, security and access to reliable data as key requirements for effective digital agricultural services.
NITDA also highlighted the potential of AI to analyse agricultural trends, provide tailored recommendations to farmers and power early-warning systems that could help them respond to emerging threats.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, also called for increased investment in digital agricultural extension, saying technology would play an important role in modernising farming, increasing productivity and improving food security.
Kyari said Nigeria’s traditional agricultural extension system had weakened over the years, leaving many extension agents to serve an increasingly large number of farmers.
He said digital platforms could help close the gap by providing farmers with weather alerts, market information, crop disease guidance and other useful agricultural information through mobile phones and other digital channels.
The minister, however, stressed that technology should support rather than replace conventional extension services and must take into account the realities and needs of farmers.
He urged state governments to increase investment in digital agricultural services and called for greater participation by young people, while ensuring that women farmers were not left behind.
Kyari said improving the productivity of millions of farmers would be essential to meeting Nigeria’s growing food needs, adding that better access to agricultural knowledge and advisory services could improve livelihoods and strengthen food security.
The Chief Executive Officer of Extension Africa, Tajudeen Yahaya, called for stronger cooperation among government agencies, private organisations, development partners and technology companies to address the fragmentation in agricultural extension services.
Yahaya identified people, data, technology and partnerships as the key pillars needed to build a stronger extension system.
He disclosed that Extension Africa, established in 2021, now has about 7,000 extension workers operating across 16 states and has reached more than one million farmers.
He said the summit was designed to develop practical solutions and measurable benchmarks for improving Nigeria’s agricultural extension system through stronger human capacity, reliable data, technology and sustainable partnerships.
Participants at the summit agreed that digital tools, including AI, should be used to strengthen existing extension services rather than displace them. They also emphasised the need for reliable data, interoperable systems, farmer-focused solutions and sustained collaboration between the public and private sectors.
