Impact of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) in Nigeria, a Review of the Future of Farming in Africa

The study investigates controlled environment agriculture (CEA) in Nigeria focusing on its feasibility, economic benefits, environmental impact, and socio-economic implications. While CEA technologies such as hydroponics, vertical farming, automation, and greenhouse systems offer efficiency and yield improvements, this review highlights the extent to which they can be utilized in solving the food challenges facing the country including food shortages, wasteful use of land, and climatic disturbances in agriculture. However, their adoption faces challenges like high initial costs, technical knowledge gaps, and unstable energy infrastructure. Additionally, there is a lack of localized research on resource utilization, crop profitability, and the scalability of these systems in Nigeria’s urban and rural contexts, which further hinders adoption. Government policy reforms, renewable energy access, and capacity-building programs are crucial to overcoming these barriers. Localized pilot projects and field studies are also necessary to validate the feasibility of CEA systems under Nigeria’s unique socio-economic and climatic conditions. Cross-country comparisons with South Africa and Kenya reveal actionable insights for Nigeria’s CEA implementation such as South Africa’s public-private partnerships and Kenya’s solar-powered vertical farms which can serve as actionable blueprints for Nigeria’s CEA adoption and expansion. Nigeria with its teeming population is food import-dependent, with agricultural imports reaching 3.35 trillion Naira between 2019 and 2023. This is unsustainable and requires alternative measures including targeted CEA interventions to increase its agricultural productivity. Overall, for CEA to contribute meaningfully to the Nigerian agricultural sector, specific changes including targeted subsidies, policy reforms, renewable energy access, stakeholder engagement, capacity-building programs, and infrastructure development must be instituted to achieve sustainable agricultural growth. Furthermore, strategies such as hybridizing traditional and CEA practices and creating “pay-as-you-grow” financial models for CEA infrastructure can make the transition more viable for smallholder farmers, who dominate Nigeria’s agricultural sector.