Nigeria Must Reform Agricultural Extension to Empower Women, Youth —UI Professor

News in Brief:

— Nigeria must urgently reform its agricultural extension system to improve access to information, technology and advisory services for women, youth and underserved groups.

— The country requires better funding, digital inclusion, gender-responsive training and stronger accountability to close the gap between policy commitments and implementation.

Professor Stella Olusola Odebode, a University of Ibadan researcher, has called on policy makers in Nigeria to reform the country's agricultural extension system to give women, young people and other underserved groups better access to agricultural information, technologies and advisory services.

Her statement came during a policy brief titled Mainstreaming Gender in Nigeria’s Agricultural Extension System for Inclusive Service Delivery, developed under the AWARD Policy Innovation Project.

The assessment found a significant gap between Nigeria’s policy commitments to gender inclusion and their implementation.

Youth and Women Still Face Gaps in Agricultural Support

According to the policy brief, the National Agricultural Extension Policy (NAEP) 2023 scored just 23.5% under the Gender and Agricultural Policy assessment, indicating weak operational integration of gender considerations.

Odebode announced that issues including social norms, care responsibilities, safety concerns, climate resilience and the needs of different vulnerable groups must be addressed more directly.

The findings also uncovered gaps in research and data. For example, while 91.9% of researchers reported institutional support and 89.2% had access to digital research tools, only 50% routinely collected sex-disaggregated data.

For young Nigerians entering agriculture, better extension services could provide access to practical knowledge on modern farming techniques, climate-smart agriculture, markets and digital tools. Digital Access Alone Is Not Enough

The researcher noted that smartphone and internet access had not automatically translated into inclusive digital advisory services. Only 63.6% of women farmers surveyed reported receiving digital advisory support, while just 33.3% of extension agents said they actually provided gender-responsive advisory services.

Odebode therefore called for dedicated funding for gender-responsive digital extension, stronger women’s participation in decision-making, local-language content and improved training for extension agents.

The policy brief also recommended clear implementation responsibilities, measurable inclusion targets, farmer feedback systems, digital gender audits and regular research-extension-policy review forums.

The professor said Nigeria already has policy recognition and basic digital readiness, but must now focus on implementation.

For young people considering agriculture as a career or business, a stronger extension system could make it easier to access the knowledge, technology and advisory support needed to build productive and sustainable enterprises.