Summary4 points
- 20 young farmers in Sabon Gari, Kaduna State, were trained as AI Climate Youth Ambassadors.
- Participants' knowledge of land degradation rose from 38.1% to 95% after the training.
- 100% of participants demonstrated knowledge of ways to reduce land degradation after the workshop.
- The trained ambassadors will reach at least 150 additional farmers across their communities.
By Abdullahi Alhassan, Kaduna
Young farmers in three communities in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State are turning to artificial intelligence to better understand climate risks, flooding and land degradation affecting their farms.
The development followed a one-day training organised by Nest Africa AI Innovation Lab, which equipped 20 young farmers from Jushi, Jama’a and Zabi wards with practical knowledge of artificial intelligence and climate intelligence.
The participants were trained as AI Climate Youth Ambassadors under a project titled “Demystifying AI in Practice: Community Awareness and Climate Intelligence in Kaduna”.
According to Muhammed Sani Kabir, Communications Lead of Nest Africa AI Innovation Lab, the participants were selected based on their experience with farming and understanding of seasonal risks in their communities, rather than their educational background in technology.
The training introduced the farmers to AyéMọlẹ AI, a climate intelligence platform developed by Nest Africa to translate complex weather and environmental information into simple, locally relevant guidance.
The platform is designed to work with basic mobile phones and help farmers understand how changing weather conditions could affect farming activities, livestock and land.
AI puts climate information in farmers’ hands.
For farmers in northern Nigeria, climate information can determine when to plant, where to graze livestock and how to respond to approaching floods.
AyéMọlẹ AI is designed to go beyond simply telling users that rain is expected. It aims to explain what the weather conditions could mean for activities such as planting, grazing and moving livestock away from flood-prone areas.
This approach is particularly important in communities where access to technical climate information remains limited.
The project comes against the backdrop of increasing climate-related risks affecting Nigerian agriculture.
According to ReliefWeb, floods in Nigeria in 2022 affected more than three million people and destroyed over 500,000 hectares of farmland.
For farmers, however, flooding is not the only challenge. Land degradation can gradually reduce soil productivity, lower crop yields and make farming more difficult if communities do not adopt appropriate land management practices.
The Kaduna project seeks to help young farmers recognise such risks earlier and share useful information with other members of their communities.
Land degradation knowledge records the biggest improvement.
The training produced a significant improvement in participants’ understanding of land degradation.
Before the workshop, only 38.1 per cent of the participants could correctly define land degradation.
After the training, that figure increased to 95 per cent.
More significantly, 100 per cent of the participants demonstrated knowledge of ways to reduce land degradation after completing the programme.
Overall, the average knowledge score among participants increased from 74.3 per cent before the training to 94.5 per cent after the workshop.
Abubakar Isa Abubakar, one of the facilitators, attributed the improvement partly to the way technical concepts were presented in terms that participants could relate to their everyday experiences.
“Awareness gaps are often about vocabulary and framing rather than a lack of lived knowledge,” he said.
“That is why community-level sensitisation with farmers and land users matters so much.”
The training combined lessons on AI, climate change and land degradation with role-play exercises and ward-based breakout sessions.
Participants also tested the AyéMọlẹ AI platform using real challenges from their farms and communities.
Young farmers to train more community members
The project is designed to extend beyond the 20 farmers who participated in the initial training.
Each AI Climate Youth Ambassador committed to training at least 25 additional farmers in their respective wards.
If the participants fulfil that commitment, the initiative could reach at least 150 additional people through the community-based cascade model.
Nest Africa has already taken AyéMọlẹ AI back to the three participating communities through awareness sessions and live demonstrations.
The organisation estimates that between 100 and 150 residents, including farmers, have interacted directly with the platform and provided feedback to the technical team.
The community discussions have also generated interest in other possible uses of artificial intelligence.
According to the organisation, residents who initially focused on farming and climate information began asking what other problems AI could help them solve.
That response could be important in changing perceptions of artificial intelligence among communities where the technology is still largely associated with chatbots and online services.
Nest Africa begins engagement with policymakers.
The initiative is also moving into policy discussions.
Nest Africa has held initial discussions with the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency and plans further engagement with the state Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, as well as local government authorities.
The organisation is preparing a policy brief ahead of a planned stakeholder roundtable.
The project is supported by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) under the Nigeria AI Collective.
The Nigeria AI Collective was established by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and is led by Data Science Nigeria, Lagos Business School and CJID.
Nest Africa was one of seven civil society organisations selected under the initiative to translate Nigeria’s national AI agenda into practical community-level interventions.
For the participating farmers, the project offers a different way of approaching climate adaptation: combining local knowledge with accessible technology.
With young people accounting for more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population and northern communities facing increasing climate risks, initiatives that place practical climate information directly in the hands of farmers could become increasingly important.
The Kaduna pilot is therefore testing whether AI can move beyond the language of innovation and become a practical tool for farmers dealing with the daily realities of changing weather, flooding and declining land productivity.
