Program / Agriculture
Agriculture
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and a major agricultural economy, yet food systems remain fragile: smallholders face limited credit, inputs, and markets; post-harvest loss and climate pressure are acute.
Research on these problems exists. What's missing are systems that turn it into tools for farmers, aggregators, extension workers, and traders where decisions are made.
What we support
We support postgraduate projects that can become working systems — tools that turn agricultural data and research into practical support for real decisions. Projects need a specific system to build, identifiable users, and a deployment path feasible within months. Support covers project development costs, tuition, technical and product direction, and deployment support through the program cycle.
Focus areas
We are particularly interested in projects in these areas, though we will consider any serious proposal with a viable system to build:
- Translating agronomy, climate, soil, or yield research into decision-support tools
- Systems for farmers, aggregators, and extension workers — what to plant, when to plant, how to manage risk
- Market access and pricing tools for smallholders and traders
- Post-harvest loss reduction and storage optimisation
- Agricultural data infrastructure and monitoring systems
- Tools deployable through lightweight channels — mobile, SMS, low-bandwidth dashboards
What a strong project looks like
Strong agriculture projects are grounded in a specific context — a particular crop, region, value chain, or decision problem. They have users who are clearly identifiable: farmers in a specific area, extension workers with a defined role, traders operating in a specific market. The system to build is specific and bounded, not a general platform.
The strongest projects take existing research or data that already exists within a Nigerian institution and turn it into something usable — rather than requiring new data collection before any value can be delivered.
Who should apply
Postgraduate students in agriculture, agronomy, agricultural economics, environmental science, rural development, food science, or related fields. Prior fieldwork, research experience, or demonstrated engagement with Nigerian agricultural systems and the users within them is a strong positive signal.