Nigeria has a food security problem as water for crops is harder to find

KWALKWALAWA, Nigeria (AP) — After two decades of working his farm in northwestern Nigeria, Umaru Muazu now struggles to find water for his crops.

A murky puddle is all that remains of a river near his 5-hectare farm and those of others in this community in arid Sokoto state. Because the 62-year-old Muazu can't afford to dig a well to keep crops like millet and maize from withering, he might abandon farming.

“Before, with a small farm, you could get a lot," he said.

Climate change is challenging agriculture in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. With long dry spells and extreme heat, water bodies are drying because the arid season is becoming longer than usual. The wet season, though it can dump excessive rain, is short.

It's fresh pain in a country where the World Food Program says 31 million people already face food insecurity. Efforts to recover from one climate shock are overlapped by the next, said WFP spokesperson Chi Lael.

The challenges faced by farmers in the north, who account for most of what Nigeria eats, are affecting food prices and availability in the booming coastal south that's home to the megacity of Lagos.

More than 80% of Nigeria’s farmers are smallholder farmers, who account for 90% of the country's annual agricultural production. Some work their fields with little more than a piece of roughly carved wood and their bare hands.

Farmers are facing low yields because the government has failed to develop infrastructure like dams to help mitigate the effects of climate change, said Daniel Obiora, national president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria.

There is little data available on the drying-up of smaller water bodies across the north. But farmers say the trend has been worsening.

In Adamawa state, water scarcity caused by higher temperatures and changing rain patterns has affected over 1,250 hectares (3,088 acres) of farmland, disrupting food supply and livelihoods, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said last year.

Over-extraction of water and deforestation are other factors contributing to northern Nigeria's drying rivers, according to Abdulsamad Isah, co-founder of local Extension Africa nonprofit that often works with farmers.

Elsewhere in Sokoto state, Nasiru Bello tilled his farm to cultivate onions without assurance of a meaningful harvest. With nearby rivers and wells drying up, he has resorted to pumping groundwater for the farm that provides the sole income for his family of 26. But the cost of pumping amid soaring gas prices has become unbearable.

“The plants do not grow well as it did,” he said.

Nigeria is forecast to become the world's third most populous nation by 2025, alongside the United States and after India and China.

With Nigeria’s population expected to reach 400 million by 2050, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has been encouraging climate-smart agriculture to help ensure food security, including drip irrigation, which delivers water slowly and directly to roots and helps conserve water, instead of traditional irrigation systems that flood entire fields.

“There should be more orientation for farmers about climate change,” said Yusuf Isah Sokoto, director of the College of Environmental Science at Sokoto's Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic.

At least two-thirds of the trees in the state have been lost due to deforestation, contributing to rising temperatures, Sokoto said.

Data from the government-run statistics agency show that local agriculture contributed 22% of Nigeria’s GDP in the second quarter of 2024, down from 25% in the previous quarter. While the trend has fluctuated in recent years, experts have said agricultural production still does not reflect growing government investment in the sector.

Household food imports, meanwhile, rose by 136% from 2023 to 2024, government statistics show.

The decreasing farm yields are being felt elsewhere in Nigeria, especially the south.

In Lagos, the price of several items grown in the north have nearly doubled in the last two years, partly due to decreasing supplies. A head of cabbage grown in the north is selling for 2,000 naira ($1.2), nearly double its price a year ago and more than five times the price in Sokoto.

Nigerian authorities acknowledge the problem. Many farmers who once harvested up to 10 tons are hardly able to get half that these days, agriculture minister Aliyu Abdullahi said earlier this year.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and his government have touted agriculture as a means for economic prosperity. Shortly after he took office in May 2023, Tinubu’s government declared a food security state of emergency and announced plans to activate 500,000 hectares of farmland in Nigeria’s land banks, which are mostly in the north.

The land banks, however, are yet to be activated.

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Nasiru Bello plants onions on his farm Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A man irrigates his farm in Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Umaru Muazu , 62 years old, watch as workers prepare to water a farm from a murky puddle in Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A man walk past a drying river in Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Umaru Muazu, 62 years old, watches as workers prepare to water a farm from a murky puddle in Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Umaru Muazu, 62 years old, speaks during an interview on his farm in Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A farmer tills his onion farm under the blistering sun in Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Umaru Muazu, 62 years old, remove weeds from his farm under the blistering sun in Kwalkwalawa, northwestern Nigeria, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

BALTIMORE (AP) — Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday in the 2024 collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, accusing the Singapore-based operator of a ship and a key employee of making critical decisions that led to the disaster and the deaths of six people.

The indictment names Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., based in Singapore, and Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd., based in Chennai, India. Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, an Indian national who was technical superintendent for the Dali container ship, was also charged.

The Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024, killing six construction workers who had been filling potholes.

“The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a preventable tragedy of enormous consequence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The companies and Nair are charged with conspiracy, willfully failing to immediately inform the U.S. Coast Guard of a known hazardous condition, obstruction of an agency proceeding and false statements.

An FBI investigation into the crash focused on the vessel’s operations and whether the crew knew of critical systems issues before leaving port.

The National Transportation Safety Board found last year that two electrical blackouts — one caused by a loose wire aboard the Dali and another by problems with a fuel pump — disabled the controls of the huge cargo ship before it crashed into the bridge.

The Dali was leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka when its steering failed because of the power loss. The ship crashed into a supporting column of the bridge at about 1:30 a.m.

Maryland officials estimate it could cost between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion to replace the bridge, which is expected to be open to traffic in late 2030.

But the true cost of the collapse was far greater, according to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. It halted shipping at the Port of Baltimore, disrupted the livelihoods of thousands, rerouted road traffic through communities already bearing disproportionate burdens and triggered economic problems statewide.

The indictment comes on the heels of a settlement in principle between the State of Maryland, Synergy Marine and Grace Ocean Private Limited, the Singapore-based ship owner, Attorney General Anthony Brown announced in April.

That lawsuit alleged the crash was the result of negligence, mismanagement and the reckless operation of a vessel that was not seaworthy and should never have left port. Plaintiffs include the families of the six construction workers who died, owners of cargo that was on the ship and local governments seeking damages for economic losses. The details of the settlement haven’t been disclosed and some portions of the lawsuit remain unresolved.

The state sought damages on behalf of its agencies for the destruction of the bridge, harm to the Patapsco River and surrounding environment, lost revenues and economic losses to Maryland and its residents.

The settlement does not resolve any claims the state has against the shipbuilder, Hyundai, the attorney general’s office said in April.

The bridge, a longstanding Baltimore landmark, was a vital piece of transportation infrastructure that allowed drivers to easily bypass downtown. The original 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) steel span took five years to build and opened to traffic in 1977.

White reported from Detroit.

FILE - The cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, March 26, 2024, as seen from Pasadena, Md. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)