By Abbas Nazil
Farmers across Northern Nigeria are counting losses as unpredictable rainfall, prolonged dry spells and destructive downpours disrupt planting, damage crops and threaten livelihoods.
A NatureNews investigation covering the North-East, North-West and North-Central regions found that rain-fed agriculture — on which millions of smallholders depend — is increasingly vulnerable to shifting rainfall patterns.
The complaints are consistent: delayed planting, wilting crops, repeated sowing and mounting debts as farmers struggle to predict when rains will arrive and how long they will last.
In Gombe State, maize farmer Mrs Joy Ayuba said she planted millet and maize in the first week of June, but the rains failed.
“We witnessed rainfall only twice in June and it stopped. This is really bad as many farmers are already counting losses,” she said.
Another farmer, Hassan Kwami, said many households in his community have resorted to replanting to salvage the season.
“Unpredictable rainfall is threatening food production. We have had to replant our fields to reduce losses,” he said.
In Yobe, delayed rainfall not only disrupted cultivation but also reduced work for agricultural labourers. Farmer Adamu Muhammad said many farmers are yet to recover from last year’s price crash.
“Last year we had a good harvest, but produce prices dropped sharply. Many of us could not recover our investment, and now delayed rains have made it worse,” he said.
Musa, another farmer in the state, cited rising fertiliser and transportation costs and insecurity as additional pressures compounding climate stress.
In Borno, Mallam Amsami Maina Aji said the entire farming calendar has shifted.
“The rainy season has changed. There are fluctuations and delays. What used to last five months now lasts only three months,” he said, urging farmers to adopt early-maturing varieties and follow weather forecasts.
In Jigawa State, farmers Ayuba Sadisu and Yahaya Haruna, interviewed in Dutse, described irregular rainfall as a major threat to smallholders who depend solely on rain.
They said extended dry spells after initial rains have forced many to suspend planting of water-intensive crops.
In Kano, the risk has become financial. Rice farmer Abdulwahab Adamu borrowed N1.3 million to cultivate two hectares in Kura Local Government Area, but erratic rainfall destroyed his farm, leaving him with estimated losses of over N3 million and an unpaid loan.
His case illustrates how rainfall uncertainty is turning farm investments into debt traps.
In the North-Central, the challenge is the opposite. In May 2025, Mokwa in Niger State suffered devastating floods after torrential rain submerged communities, displaced thousands and damaged roads and bridges in a major agricultural trading corridor.
Community leader Aliki Musa said residents had never experienced flooding of such magnitude, while local authorities called for urgent flood-control infrastructure.
The disaster showed how intense rainfall can wipe out both farms and the infrastructure needed to move produce to markets.
Together, the accounts reveal a dual crisis of too little rain at critical growth stages and too much rain at harvest and post-harvest, with direct consequences for yields, household incomes, labour opportunities and loan repayment.
Farmers interviewed called for more accessible and localised weather forecasts, revitalised extension services, affordable inputs, expansion of irrigation for dry-season farming, and investment in flood control and water harvesting.
As rainfall becomes harder to predict, the investigation underlines the urgent need to equip rural communities to manage both prolonged dry spells and intense downpours to protect food production and national food security.
