Bedru B. Balana

Abstract Climatic change threatens agricultural productivity and food security of smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa, yet evidence on how climate-induced declines in agricultural productivity affect child nutrition remains limited.

1 Introduction Low application rates of productivity-enhancing inputs such as inorganic fertilizer and improved seeds are widely recognized as key constraints to cereal yield growth in sub-Saharan Africa (Palmas and Chamberlin 2020; Amare et al. 2024a; Hurley et al. 2018; Liverpool-Tasie et al. 2017a, 2017b; Ricker-Gilbert et al. 2011).

November 11, 2025 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.