Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has intensified efforts to promote climate-resilient agriculture with the demonstration of its solar-powered irrigation system to farmers in Kano State, highlighting the technology’s potential to reduce production costs, support dry-season farming and curb post-harvest losses.
The demonstration, held on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at large-scale rice farms in Zakirai, Gabawasa Local Government Area and Kwarin Kaba, Kumbotso LGA, according to a press release e-signed by the agency’s Director of Information, Olusegun Ayeoyenikan was organised by NASENI in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), CGIAR, Kano State Ministry of Agriculture, Kano State Agricultural Development Authority (KNARDA), and farm cooperative societies.
Leading the field demonstrations, NASENI’s Director of Technical Services, Engr. Dr. Emmanuel Ajani, said the intervention was designed to address the challenges confronting farmers who depend largely on rainfall and fossil-fuel-powered irrigation. He noted that Nigeria has an estimated 84 million hectares of arable land, but only a small fraction of its agricultural land is under functional irrigation.
“In Northern Nigeria, specifically Kano State, climate variability and rising fuel costs, exacerbated by subsidy removals, heavily threaten the profitability of dry-season farming—rice, wheat and high-value vegetables,” Ajani said.
He explained that the demonstrations formed part of a two-day Demand-Supply Linkage Workshop and Field Demonstrations for Solar-Based Irrigation Systems (SBIS) aimed at bringing farmers, equipment suppliers and financial institutions together to accelerate adoption of solar irrigation technology.
“This workshop brought together the Demand, structured farmer clusters; Supply, solar vendors; and Enablers, non-interest banks, conventional banks, NIRSAL and extension agents, to catalyse bankable investments and directly translate research into actionable equipment adoption,” he added.
The Managing Director of KNARDA, Dr. Farouk Ahmad Kurawa, commended NASENI for organising the workshop and demonstrations, saying the initiative provided farmers with direct access to certified and quality-assured solar-based irrigation technologies. He added that farmers were willing to embrace innovations capable of improving agricultural productivity.
A beneficiary farmer, Mr. Zubairu Mohammed Inuwa of Kwarin Kaba, Kumbotso LGA, also praised NASENI’s solar irrigation system, saying its adoption would facilitate all-season farming, increase crop yields, reduce post-harvest losses and improve farmers’ income.
Speaking on the financing challenge, Team Lead of IWMI, Dr. Adebayo Oke, said CGIAR baseline studies and Discrete Choice Experiments conducted in Kano, Kaduna and Kebbi had identified high upfront costs as a major barrier to the adoption of solar irrigation systems by smallholder farmers.
“That is why we are working with NASENI. The primary objective is to establish a functional, sustainable market linkage among smallholder farmer cooperatives, solar irrigation equipment suppliers and financial institutions to accelerate the adoption of Farmer-led Irrigation Development, FLID/SBIS, in Kano State and others,” Oke said.
The programme also brought together representatives of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Jaiz Bank and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to explore harvest-synchronised credit facilities and Islamic finance products that could make solar irrigation equipment more accessible to farmers.
Members of the Vegetable Farmers Association of Nigeria, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), cooperative societies, vegetable and tomato farming clusters, as well as women and youth farming groups, participated in the demonstrations and expressed support for solar-based irrigation as a viable pathway to strengthening agricultural production.
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