Send message to Contributors

Contribution short abstract

This paper explores how smallholder farmers in Nigeria manage pests and diseases amid climate change. Using a justice-focused lens, it examines power, data control, and whose knowledge shapes farming decisions, highlighting risks and opportunities in technology-driven solutions.

Contribution long abstract

Climate change is worsening pest and disease outbreaks for smallholder farmers in Nigeria, placing increasing pressure on those who already face limited resources and fragile livelihoods. In response, digital technologies for pest detection, disease forecasting, and climate advisory services are often promoted as solutions. While these technologies promise improvements in farm management, focusing only on digital approaches risks overlooking deeper issues of fairness, power, and control in agriculture.

This paper examines how these technologies are designed and applied in smallholder farming. Many rely on external data, standardized models, and privately managed platforms that often fail to reflect local environmental conditions or farmers’ knowledge. As a result, farmers are often positioned as users or data contributors rather than active participants in shaping these systems.

Framing the analysis around technological justice, the paper emphasizes participation, accountability, and knowledge inclusion. It considers whose insights inform pest and disease models, how climate risks are interpreted, and who benefits when technology guides farming decisions. Without meaningful farmer involvement, such technologies can reinforce existing inequalities instead of strengthening resilience to climate challenges.

The paper critiques policies that equate fairness with tool access or training, arguing that data ownership, transparency, and power relations must also be addressed. It concludes by proposing principles for justice-focused technologies in Nigerian smallholder agriculture, supporting climate adaptation while respecting farmers’ knowledge, autonomy, and rights.