Zamfara State Agriculture Development Project (ZACADEP)
Adaptation Need
Zamfara State in northwestern Nigeria is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, experiencing increased frequency of droughts, erratic rainfall, flash floods, and rising temperatures. These changes are adversely affecting agricultural yields, exacerbating food insecurity, and threatening farmers’ livelihoods. Adapting the agricultural production systems, value chains, and food supply chains and infrastructures to these escalating climate challenges is critically important to enhance resilience, protect food security, and sustain livelihoods.
GCA’s Added Value
GCA, in collaboration with the Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA) is developing a statewide, gender‑responsive climate risk and vulnerability assessment, alongside spatial analytics and hotspot maps, to guide project investments that strengthen resilience and protect the state’s agri-food systems and livelihoods. In addition, it will design a scalable digital extension and early‑warning framework, with an investment forecast, that links farmers to timely agro-climatic advisory information. And will support the capacity strengthening of project actors. Together, GCA’s support will integrate robust climate‑risk analytics, strengthen real‑time advisory services and the capacity to use them effectively into ZACADEP’s implementation architecture.
Project goals
Mainstreaming Adaptation and Resilience
The evidence generated from a gender-responsive climate risk and vulnerability assessment of the selected commodity value chains across the 14 local governments of Zamfara will provide context-specific insights into climate risks, vulnerabilities, and the adaptive capacity of rural (farmers) populations. This information will guide the prioritization of adaptation interventions, investments, and implementation strategies. Further, a framework for a state-wide digital early-warning system will enable the government to provide farmers with real-time agro- and climate advisory information, while targeted capacity building will ensure that information is effectively translated into day-to-day practice. In all, GCA’s mainstreaming support will embed resilience across productivity, infrastructure and institutional components—safeguarding project outcomes and providing a model for building climate resilience that can be replicated in similar dryland states.
Expected Project Outcomes
- Expanded coverage and use of climate services – digital advisories and early warning information by over 350,000 smallholders across Zamfara state.
- Strengthened Capacity (through ToT training) of1 000 local extension staff and producer champions (≥ 40 % women) on climate smart agriculture techniques and practices, and enhanced capabilities to cascade the trainings.
- Digital climate‑enabled solutions scaled up — 120 000 farmers/herders actively use digital adaptation solutions for on‑farm decisions.
- Jobs created – 105,000 jobs created by MSEs, particularly for women and youth.
- 10,500 agro-processing enterprises established or promoted.
- 50% crop yield increase.
Timeline
GCA Support Status
Technical Assistance Preparation
GCA Support Implementation
March, 2025
GCA Support Completion
Monitoring
Finance
Project Investment Value
Total Investment Value
IFI Investment Value
$52.38M
Other Investment Value
$2.80M
IFI partners
Contacts
General media inquiries
info@gca.orgRequest for information
FoodsecurityTeam@gca.org