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)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Protests over federal immigration enforcement raids and President Donald Trump's move to mobilize the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles are spreading nationwide and are expected to continue into the weekend.

While many demonstrations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have been peaceful, with marchers chanting slogans and carrying signs, others have led to clashes with police, hundreds of arrests and the use of chemical irritants to disperse crowds. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott posted on social media that an unspecified number of National Guard troops “will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order.”

Activists say they will hold even larger demonstrations in the coming days, with “No Kings” events across the country on Saturday to coincide with Trump's planned military parade in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration said immigration raids and deportations will continue regardless.

A look at some protests across the country:

Hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Wednesday evening to a federal building where immigration cases are heard, with some dragging a dumpster nearby and setting it on fire.

The building was covered in graffiti, with “Abolish ICE Now” written in large letters across its front window. Some protesters moved electric bikes and cones to block its entrance.

Dozens of officers squared off with protesters near the federal building, with some shooting pepper spray. Officers worked to move the crowd away from the federal building, with some protesters throwing fireworks and rocks at officers, according to the Seattle Police Department.

Police detained more than 80 people during protests in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday.

Protesters shouted and waved signs that included “ICE out of NYC” as they rallied near an ICE facility and federal courthouses. Police estimated some 2,500 people participated. Some protesters jumped over metal barricades and clashed with officers who wrestled them to the ground. Video shows demonstrators throwing items at law enforcement vehicles.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said most of the demonstrators were peaceful and that just a few caused the disorder that required police intervention.

“We want to maintain everyone’s right to protest peacefully in this city and in this country, but we will not tolerate chaos and disorder or violence,” Tisch said Wednesday morning during an appearance on Fox 5 New York.

Police said they took 86 people into custody, including 52 who were released with criminal court summonses for minor crimes and 34 who were charged with assault, resisting arrest and other crimes.

More than 400 people gathered outside of city hall Wednesday evening for an anti-ICE demonstration, according to local authorities. The protest was largely peaceful, with many blasting music and some handing out water. Nearby streets were closed off as law enforcement officers watched from hundreds of feet away.

Dozens walked there from the historic Alamo mission after police closed off the area before the protest began.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus encouraged peaceful demonstration but said his officers would respond if "it turns violent.”

Officers with the Texas Public Safety Department said the Texas National Guard was present at the protest. Members were not seen standing with law enforcement officers in front of a small crowd of demonstrators.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott declined to say how many soldiers would be sent or how, only that they would be deployed in “strategic locations where they can provide the most robust response” necessary. He did not say whether he or the president mobilized them.

“There are others outside of this room who would like to know that. And I’m not going to tell them,” Abbott said. “We want to make sure that what has happened in California does not happen in Texas.”

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said he did not ask the governor to deploy the National Guard troops and officials said they did not know how many troops were being sent, where they would be stationed or what they would do.

“I want to acknowledge the anger and frustration that's out there with the federal government's crude interpretations of immigration law and cruel approach to human rights,' Nirenberg said. ”Exercise your right to free speech, but I urge you to keep it lawful and peaceful."

About 150 protesters gathered outside the Federal Detention Center on Tuesday afternoon and marched to ICE headquarters then back to the detention center.

Police ordered a group marching along a major road to disperse and when they ignored the orders officers arrested 15 of them. Several officers used force during the arrests and their conduct will be reviewed, police said, without detailing what kind of force was used. Two officers suffered minor injuries.

About 200 protesters gathered outside the San Francisco Immigration Court on Tuesday after activists said several people were arrested there.

Protests in the city swelled to several thousand demonstrators Sunday and Monday, and more than 150 people were arrested after some vandalized buildings and damaged cars, police vehicles and buses. Police said two officers suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Police said 17 people were arrested at a protest that jammed a downtown plaza and took over surrounding streets Tuesday evening.

Some of those arrested were accused of vandalism, and four were charged with felonies including aggravated battery against an officer of the peace.

Also Tuesday, a 66-year-old woman was treated for a fractured arm after being struck by a car. Video showed the vehicle speeding along a road filled with protesters. No other injuries were reported.

A group of protesters gathered before the Colorado state capitol, creating a sea of cardboard signs, one exhorting: “Show your faces. ICE cowards.” The group then split in half, with hundreds chanting and marching down two thoroughfares and crowding out traffic.

Police ordered them to disperse. Officers used smoke and pepper balls to control the crowd and 17 people were arrested, Denver police said Wednesday.

Mayor Lisa Brown imposed a downtown curfew after a protest Wednesday afternoon outside an ICE office in Spokane, Washington.

The curfew will run from Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. until 5 a.m. Thursday, according to a statement released by the city.

The curfew doesn’t apply to law enforcement, emergency personnel, media, people leaving the soccer game at a local sports facility, residents who live in the area and people traveling for work.

Several protesters were detained outside the ICE building, KXLY-TV reported.

Anti ICE protesters gather in downtown San Antonio, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A demonstrator with carrying a Mexican flag chants during a protest against deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against recent immigration raids on the Lake Street-Marshall Bridge on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

People hold up signs during a protest against federal immigration arrests, Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Anti ICE protesters gather near the Alamo as Texas state troopers keep watch in downtown San Antonio, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Demonstrators protest ongoing raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

People hold a vigil at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, Calif. to show solidarity with demonstrations against ICE raids, on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

A police officer watches protesters march during an immigration demonstration, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Brookhaven, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Hundreds gather in after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a raid earlier in the day in Omaha, Neb. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

Adriana Martinez holds up signs during a rally of union workers and others for David Huerta, the president of Service Employees International Union California, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Protesters face off with officers with Federal Protective Service outside a blocked exit at the Immigration Court on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Martha Bellisle)

Protesters face off with officers with Federal Protective Service outside a blocked exit at the Immigration Court on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Martha Bellisle)