Nigeria - Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth (AGROW) Project

Overview & Synopsis

Nigeria Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth (AGROW) Project for Nigeria has the development objectives to increase smallholder productivity and strengthen targeted agricultural value chains in participating states. Component 1: Integrating Smallholder Farmers into Competitive Value Chains supports structured aggregation and market linkages between producer collectives and agribusiness off-takers through a performance-based Agribusiness De-risking and Market Linkage Facility (ADMLF) that channels catalytic matching grants against independently verified results such as increased contracted volumes and improved quality, while enabling embedded services, post-harvest handling, value addition, and governance strengthening of producer organizations; a competitively selected Matching Grants Secretariat manages outreach, appraisal, and fiduciary oversight, and an Independent Verification Agent validates milestones. Component 2: Modernization of Smallholder Production includes Sub-components to strengthen technology generation and transfer and to build digital public infrastructure for agriculture. Sub-component 2.1 strengthens research–extension–technology transfer systems to deliver high-yielding and climate-resilient seeds and agronomic practices for rice, maize, cassava, and soybean, and to expand farmer field schools, demonstrations, and public extension for broader adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), in partnership with national and international research institutions. Sub-component 2.2 strengthens the digital agricultural ecosystem by establishing a national farmer and farm registry, updating digital soil information, enhancing localized weather forecasting at the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), and developing an interoperable advisory platform to deliver weather, agronomy, market, and traceability services through low-cost channels, with state-led farmer enumeration incentivized through performance-based conditions. Component 3: Policy and Enabling Environment for Private Investment in Inputs Markets addresses systemic input bottlenecks by expanding Early Generation Seed (EGS) supply through structured public–private collaboration, modernizing seed quality regulation including risk-based and third-party certification and variety release aligned with regional rules, improving fertilizer quality assurance through labeling, inspection, and laboratory capacity, and incentivizing responsible land-based investments using a Framework for Responsible and Inclusive Land-Intensive Agriculture (FRILIA) with results verified through performance-based conditions. Component 4: Project Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation ensures federal and state implementation support, fiduciary and Environmental and Social Framework compliance, data-driven monitoring including impact evaluation, gender integration, citizen engagement and a Grievance Mechanism, and independent verification of state eligibility and performance-based results.