Professor Michael Ngadi calls for enhanced capacity of smallholder farmers in Nigeria

McGill Bioresource Engineering Professor Michael Ngadi called for urgent action to address the challenges facing stallholder farmers in Nigeria at a recent public lecture at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU).

A specialist in developing advanced emerging technologies for monitoring and controlling agrifood processing systems, he discussed the critical role that smallholder farmers and processors play in global food systems, particularly in developing and transition countries.

He highlighted the struggles faced by smallholder operators in Nigeria, including limited resources, market accessibility, and outdated practices that hinder their potential, saying “there is urgent need to transform the agrifood systems to function at a larger scale in the light of other cross-linking and exacerbating pressures of population growth, poverty, climate change, energy, and sustainability."

Prof. Ngadi recommended that policy changes to standardize the farming ecosystem would help smallholder farmers maximize their output.