Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has said Nigeria cannot achieve long-term food security by merely increasing the amount of land under cultivation, stressing the need for technology-driven productivity improvements.
Kyari spoke at the opening of the Africa Agribusiness Extension Summit (AAES) 2026, where he described agricultural extension services as critical infrastructure for improving food production and strengthening farmers’ livelihoods.
According to the minister, Nigeria’s population is projected to approach 400 million by 2050, making it imperative to focus on knowledge, innovation and technology rather than land expansion alone.
“Most of the food required by Africans still must be produced from the farms that are already here with us now. We cannot feed that future on more land alone,” he stated.
Kyari said the government was modernising agricultural extension services through digital platforms capable of reaching farmers more efficiently.
He disclosed that over 100,000 farmers across six states currently receive weekly SMS updates on rainfall forecasts and crop protection measures, while a multilingual digital advisory platform is being deployed in Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Pidgin.
The minister also revealed that more than 1,000 digital extension agents equipped with tablets had been deployed nationwide, while 774 agricultural desk officers were being positioned across local government areas.
He stressed that extension services should be viewed as long-term infrastructure capable of delivering sustainable productivity gains and improved resilience across the agricultural sector.
