One Acre Fund Nigeria has commenced the distribution of agricultural inputs for the 2026 planting season, targeting 88,000 smallholder farmers across Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara, and Plateau States in a programme aimed at boosting food production and improving rural livelihoods.

The social enterprise, which supports smallholder farmers with access to financing, quality inputs, training, and market linkages, said the intervention forms part of its broader effort to strengthen Nigeria’s food production systems amid rising input costs and persistent structural challenges in agricultural distribution.

Since its entry into Nigeria in 2018, One Acre Fund said it has expanded its reach to more than 600,000 farmers across its operational states, with interventions focused on improving productivity, resilience, and farm income.

Speaking at the flag-off ceremony held in Abioga community, Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Trees Lead for One Acre Fund Nigeria, Zainab Haruna, said the 2026 programme is designed to bridge financing gaps that often prevent smallholder farmers from accessing essential inputs at the start of the farming season.

“What we are doing is bridging that gap effectively by ensuring that we provide these facilities to farmers,” Haruna said.

She explained that under the organisation’s credit-based model, farmers are able to enrol with a small upfront payment, access inputs such as fertiliser, seeds, and protective equipment, and repay over a period of five to six months.

“So, rather than farmers waiting until they have all of the money to purchase their inputs, they can use a small amount to enroll in the programme, access the inputs, and then over the course of the next five to six months, they are then able to slowly pay back their loan,” she said.

“It ensures that they are able to continue running their farming enterprise. They have access to the training because we also make sure that all our farmers are trained, and that way we ensure that their yield for the season is verified and they are able to get their yield for the season,” Haruna added.

On the scale of the 2026 intervention, One Acre Fund Nigeria Communications Specialist, Kazi Nanyah, said the organisation is distributing about 9,000 metric tonnes of agricultural inputs on credit to participating farmers across the four states.

He said the initiative is aimed at addressing long-standing constraints facing Nigeria’s smallholder farmers, including limited access to agricultural finance, rising input prices, and inefficiencies in last-mile distribution systems.

“As Nigeria enters the 2026 planting season, the country’s food system continues to face structural constraints, including rising input costs, limited access to agricultural finance, and persistent inefficiencies in distribution at the community level.

“For millions of smallholder farmers who produce the bulk of Nigeria’s food, these constraints directly translate into lower productivity and heightened vulnerability,” he added.

Nanyah said the current distribution exercise, while modest relative to national demand, demonstrates a practical approach to addressing systemic bottlenecks that have historically constrained smallholder productivity.

“It is against this backdrop that One Acre Fund Nigeria has commenced the distribution of 9,000 tonnes of agricultural inputs to 88,000 farmers across Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau states.

“While modest relative to national demand, the intervention provides a practical case study in addressing systemic bottlenecks that have long constrained smallholder productivity,” Nanyah added.