Nigeria champions tech-driven agricultural reform at UN Food Summit,

Abdullateef Fowewe

At the United Nations Food Systems Summit Stocktake held in Addis Ababa, Nigeria and other African nations called for urgent, collective action to tackle food insecurity globally.

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Vice President Kashim Shettima while speaking highlighted Nigeria’s deployment of cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), geospatial analytics, and satellite-drivene climate intelligence to boost agricultural productivity and build resilient food systems.

Shettima emphasised, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution has not only disrupted the old order but gifted us instruments that were once confined to the imagination… We are deploying these tools to monitor production, enhance transparency, connect producers to markets, and reduce waste across the value chain.”

He urged a united African response, “A broken food system in any part of the world diminishes the dignity of humanity as a whole. Let us rise with a shared purpose. Let us build a world where no child sleeps on an empty stomach, where no farmer is forgotten, and where food is not a luxury but a human right.”

Further outlining Nigeria’s strategic approach, Shettima revealed the government’s commitment to private sector-led reform to scale agricultural transformation.

“Our role as a government is to derisk, catalyse, and convene… We should allow the private sector to drive the process,” he said, pledging the introduction of single-digit credit facilities for agricultural investors inspired by successful models like South Korea’s support for industrial conglomerates.

He also detailed Nigeria’s National Food Systems Transformation Pathway, institutional reforms, and investments in Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones that serve as engines of economic transformation, linking rural producers to global markets.

The summit, co-hosted by Ethiopia and Italy, featured reaffirmations from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia about alignment of climate finance with food systems and the broader need for predictable financing in Africa. UN Secretary-General António Guterres underscored the crisis as “not just a scarcity issue but a crisis of justice, equity and climate,” noting rising global hunger and food price shocks.

As Nigeria leads by example, Shettima concluded, “Nigeria is ready to listen. Nigeria is ready to learn. Nigeria is ready to lead wherever leadership is required. We believe that the arc of history… bends towards food justice.”