Bridging the gap: Unlocking intermediary bottlenecks for small-scale irrigation through human-centered design in Nigeria

In Nigeria, rainfed agriculture supports over 90% of agricultural production. Yet—as in the rest of Africa— farmers using this approach face increasingly erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells, and extreme weather events. Small-scale irrigation (SSI) has emerged as one of the most promising and potentially transformative solutions to this problem, reducing the uncertainty over rainfall while simultaneously unlocking agricultural productivity. Evidence suggests that SSI technologies significantly increase yields, extend growing seasons, and enable diversification into high-value crops, helping to alleviate poverty.

Despite its potential, adoption of SSI in Nigeria has remained strikingly low for a number of reasons, ranging from the costs of adopting new technologies to misguided policies. Most studies documenting these problems, however, focus either on demand-side factors (adoption constraints by farmers) or supply-side factors (market dysfunction for irrigation technologies). Often overlooked is the “missing middle” of enabling actors crucial to fostering SSI adoption, including government institutions, financial service providers, and private irrigation technology suppliers. Ideally, these intermediary actors can bridge existing gaps in irrigation supply and demand. Yet they face systemic bottlenecks, including fragmented policies, financing gaps, and distribution inefficiencies.