Adamu Toro: How Kaduna is being repositioned as Nigeria’s biggest agricultural hub

For years, Kaduna was associated with insecurity. Villages were abandoned, schools were shut, farms became inaccessible and rural economies were strangled by banditry and terrorism. Farmers who dared to venture into their fields sometimes had to pay levies to criminal gangs simply for the right to cultivate their own land.

That reality was not only a security crisis. It was an agricultural crisis, a food-security crisis and, ultimately, an economic crisis.

When Senator Uba Sani assumed office as Governor in May 2023, he inherited this difficult landscape. But rather than treating security and agriculture as separate challenges, his administration appears to have understood a fundamental truth: there can be no agricultural revolution where farmers cannot safely farm. That understanding is now reshaping Kaduna.

The state is moving beyond recovery from insecurity and positioning itself for something much bigger, a transformation into one of Nigeria’s most important agricultural and agro-industrial hubs.

The first task was to reclaim the countryside. Governor Sani’s administration adopted what it has described as the Kaduna Peace Model, combining security operations with dialogue, grassroots engagement and socioeconomic intervention. More than 50 consultative forums involving traditional rulers, farmers, pastoralists, youth leaders and religious figures have helped create channels for resolving disputes before they become violent.

Peace Councils were established across the senatorial districts, while security agencies received additional operational support.

The government established military bases in vulnerable areas, deployed more than 150 operational vehicles and 500 motorcycles to security agencies and strengthened inter-agency coordination.

The training of 1,000 forest guards, which commenced in June 2026, represents another dimension of the strategy. Recruited largely from affected communities, the guards possess intimate knowledge of the terrain and can provide intelligence on criminal movements in forests and remote settlements.

The objective is straightforward: take back the territory.

And according to the governor, more than 500,000 hectares of previously abandoned land have now been reclaimed.

That figure is significant because agricultural transformation ultimately begins with access to land.

More than 100 schools and over 150 primary healthcare facilities previously closed because of insecurity have also been reopened, indicating that the return to normalcy is extending beyond the farm.

The farmer is returning. The village is returning. The rural economy is returning. And that is where Kaduna’s agricultural story becomes particularly compelling.

From security to food production

It would have been easy for the administration to stop at restoring security.

Instead, it has sought to convert the restoration of peace into an agricultural economic strategy.

The numbers tell part of the story.

Agricultural funding rose from N1.48 billion in 2023 to N23.4 billion in 2024, N74.02 billion in 2025 and N108.38 billion in the 2026 budget.

That represents approximately 11.65 per cent of total state expenditure, exceeding the 10 per cent agricultural investment benchmark associated with the Malabo Declaration.

More importantly, the overwhelming majority of the 2026 allocation is earmarked for capital expenditure.

This is crucial.

The state is not merely spending money on agricultural administration. It is investing in productive capacity.

About N82.21 billion is allocated to core agricultural capital projects, including irrigation, mechanisation, storage and agricultural value-chain infrastructure.

Another N23.87 billion is allocated to rural roads.

This is where the strategy becomes more than an agricultural programme. A farmer cannot make money from a bumper harvest if his produce cannot reach the market.

A tractor cannot transform agriculture if farmers remain disconnected from roads.

A processing factory cannot survive without reliable access to raw materials. A modern agricultural economy therefore requires an ecosystem and Kaduna appears to be building that ecosystem. Fertiliser is only the beginning.

The administration’s distribution of fertiliser has also been significant.

In 2024, 500 trucks of fertiliser were distributed to farmers. In 2025, another 400 trucks followed.

In 2026, the government again flagged off the distribution of 500 trucks of free fertiliser alongside tractors to 150,000 smallholder farmers.

The decision to distribute the fertiliser free of charge is particularly noteworthy.

Governor Sani explained that he had been advised to sell the fertiliser at N20,000 per bag after government purchased it for about N56,000. But, he argued, even N20,000 was beyond the reach of many smallholder farmers.

This is a political choice, but it is also an economic intervention.

The objective is to prevent input costs from excluding poor farmers from production. Yet fertiliser alone cannot create an agricultural revolution.

That is why mechanisation matters.

Tractors, power tillers, harvesters, boom sprayers and other agricultural machinery are gradually changing the nature of farming in Kaduna.

The objective should ultimately be to move farmers from subsistence production to commercial agriculture. Building the value chain

The most important question facing Kaduna is no longer simply how much food it can produce.

The bigger question is: how much value can it retain? This is where the state’s agricultural ambitions could become transformative.

If Kaduna produces millions of tonnes of crops but sends them elsewhere for processing, much of the wealth and employment will be created outside the state. The future must therefore be about processing. Grain processing. Animal feed. Dairy. Meat processing. Poultry. Leather. Packaging. Storage. Logistics. Agricultural machinery services. Cold-chain infrastructure.

The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone being developed in partnership with the Federal Government and the African Development Bank provides an important platform for this transformation.

It can create an ecosystem in which farmers supply processors, processors employ workers, logistics companies move products and financial institutions support businesses. That is how agriculture becomes industry.

Protecting the farmer

Another important component is agricultural insurance. With more than 100,000 farmers reportedly covered by agricultural insurance schemes, Kaduna is beginning to recognise that modern farming requires protection against risks.

Floods, droughts, pests and other climate-related shocks can wipe out a farmer’s entire investment.

Insurance provides a safety net and, equally importantly, can encourage farmers and financial institutions to take greater commercial risks.

The emerging agricultural model therefore combines security, inputs, mechanisation, infrastructure, finance, insurance and processing.

That is far more ambitious than a conventional government fertiliser programme.

Kaduna possesses an extraordinary strategic advantage.

Its geography, large agricultural landmass, proximity to major markets, population, human capital and long-established commercial connections give it the potential to become a major food-production and processing centre for Nigeria.

But potential is not destiny. The real test will be whether these investments translate into higher yields, profitable farmers, functioning processing facilities, sustainable jobs and competitive agricultural exports.

Government must therefore maintain transparency around agricultural spending, ensure that inputs reach genuine farmers, prevent political capture of programmes and make private investment central to the next phase.

The state must also guard against the temptation to measure success by the number of fertiliser bags distributed or tractors purchased.

The ultimate measurement should be productivity. How much does the farmer produce per hectare? How much does he earn? How much food reaches Nigerian markets?

How many processing factories operate consistently? How many young people find meaningful employment in agriculture and agribusiness?

Those are the numbers that will determine whether Kaduna has truly transformed.

The guns and the tractors

There is a powerful symbolism in what is happening. For years, the story of Kaduna’s rural communities was defined by guns, fear and abandoned farms. Today, the state is attempting to replace that narrative with tractors, fertiliser, irrigation, roads, processing plants and markets.

That is the essence of development.

Security must create the space for production. Production must create opportunities. Opportunities must generate jobs. Jobs must reduce vulnerability to criminal recruitment. And prosperity must reinforce peace.

This is why Kaduna’s agricultural transformation deserves national attention. The state is not simply trying to produce more food.

It is attempting to build an agricultural economy.

If the current trajectory is sustained, Kaduna could emerge not merely as one of Nigeria’s leading farming states, but as the country’s most formidable integrated agricultural hub where production, processing, logistics, finance and markets operate as one ecosystem. The transformation will not happen overnight. But the direction is unmistakable.

The guns are being pushed back. The farmers are returning. The tractors are moving. And across Kaduna’s vast agricultural landscape, a new economic proposition is taking shape: the future of Kaduna may be built not beneath the ground, but from the soil.

Adamu Toro wrote in from Kaduna.