The BATN Foundation has reaffirmed its commitment to empowering smallholder farmers and strengthening Nigeria’s agricultural ecosystem through the successful hosting of its 2025 Agribusiness Dialogue Session.
The Dialogue Session, held biennially since 2015, has become one of Nigeria’s most influential platforms for shaping policy, sparking innovation, and mobilising stakeholders in the agrifood system.
This year’s edition, held on Thursday at Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos, focused on the urgent theme: “Is the Smallholder Farmer Really Finance-able?”One of the key myths tackled head-on during the session was the widespread belief that smallholder farming is not profitable enough to justify investment.
Speakers and panelists dismissed this narrative, pointing instead to the untapped potential of smallholder farmers as engines of food security, job creation, and national economic growth.
Also, in the bid to ensure smallholder farmers are not only financeable but also become resilient and recognised as critical to Nigeria’s growth story, experts also stressed that while agribusinesses are finance-able, financing must be unavoidably combined with knowledge, innovation, and access to markets to ensure farmers can move from subsistence to commercial viability.
Smallholder farmers, who represent over 40 million people and produce nearly 80 percent of Nigeria’s food, are the backbone of the country’s food security and rural economy.
Yet they face mounting challenges as international aid and donor-driven interventions decline.
The dialogue brought together farmers, policymakers, financiers, development experts, and private-sector leaders to explore innovative financing models, technology adoption, and market access strategies that can help farmers transition from subsistence to commercial viability.
In her welcome address, Executive Director of BATNF, Mrs. Halimat Shuaibu underscored the Foundation’s mission: “Our task is to ensure that smallholder farmers are not only financeable but also resilient, thriving, and recognised as critical to Nigeria’s growth story.
Agriculture must move from being seen as a survivalist venture to a strategic driver of national wealth.”Adding perspective, Oludare Odusanya, General Manager of BATN Foundation, emphasised that the real test of financeability lies in moving from theory to practice.
He noted that smallholder farmers must be seen not as passive recipients of aid but as active partners in Nigeria’s economic transformation.
“For too long, conversations around smallholder farmers have centred on limitations rather than possibilities. At BATNF, we see finance as just one piece of the puzzle.
True empowerment happens when financing is coupled with knowledge, innovation, and access to markets. Our mission is to close these gaps so that smallholder farmers are no longer defined by dependency, but recognised as the true engines of Nigeria’s agribusiness economy,” he said.
Delivering the keynote address, Senior Special Adviser on Agricultural Innovation to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Prof Ademola Adenle debunked the notion that smallholder farmers merely seek grants.
Instead, he emphasised the need for innovative financing solutions underpinned by credible farmer data and transparent systems. “Every kobo invested in smallholder farmers is not charity.
It is one of the smartest investments we can make today because agriculture remains the surest driver of jobs, innovation, and resilience,” he said.
