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Paper short abstract

Smallholder farmers in Nigeria faces uncertainty due to climate change. Farmers have resorted to using digital climate tools to cope with the climate challenges. Looking at the farmers’ lived experiences, the paper contributes to wider debates and calls for an all inclusive adaptation approach.

Paper long abstract

Smallholder farmers in Nigeria faces so much uncertainty due to climate change. There has been erratic rainfall, extreme heat, flood and intense drought, this has led to the disruption of planting seasons, reduction in yield and pressure on rural livelihood. In order to adapt to these challenges, farmers have resorted to digital climate tools like mobile weather forecast from the Nigerian meteriogical Agency (Nimet), agritech applications, e-extension services and digital farmers network. This paper aims to find out how smallholder farmers in Nigeria use these digital tools to cope with climate change, how the farmers moved from the traditional method to digital platform and how this shift is affecting the relationship between the farmers, government, the agency and tech companies.

The study revealed an asymmetrical finding whereby, to some farmers digital tools creates an opportunity for accessing climate information, knowledge sharing and ability to respond to risk and uncertainty. While for others there might be challenges of poor connectivity, poor educational background, language barrier, gender norms and control of data. All these might create some level of exclusion

From policy analysis, current literature and real-life experiences of farmers in Nigeria, this paper reveals that digital climate tools can be a solution to some farmers and a constrain to other farmers. This study focusses on farmers experiences and lays more emphasis on the on-going debate, asserting that the future of Nigeria agriculture should use a more inclusive approach whereby the technology used should serve the people concerned and not vice versa.