Food for a Changing World

Across Africa, the struggle to achieve food security is increasingly focused on attaining climate resilience. Food crops once guided by familiar climate now bear the weight of floods, heatwaves, and droughts that disrupt production and unsettle entire food systems. As the continent marks Africa Food Security and Nutrition Day, new research on climate change vulnerability and adaptive capacity within Nigeria’s tomato value chain reveals how resilience can be built along the value chain, providing a policy draft to mitigate climate risks and promote sustainable, nutritious food production.

The Climate-Nutrition Nexus

Tomatoes are more than a culinary staple among Nigerians. It is a vital source of vitamins A and C, critical for immunity, growth, and overall health. Despite high demand, the nation’s tomato sector faces chronic instability. Erratic rainfall, pest outbreaks, and heat stress are frequently reported as routine problems for farmers, leading to reduced yields and increased post-harvest losses.

For millions of smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of agricultural production, these climate change impacts mean more than just a loss of income; they also reduce household food availability, accessibility, and affordability, thereby diminishing dietary diversity and increasing vulnerability to malnutrition. To the general populace, a decline in tomato production often results in increased prices, forcing families to substitute fresh produce with less nutritious alternatives.

From Challenge to Change: Building Adaptive Capacity

Addressing these challenges requires intentional investment in systems that strengthen resilience across the tomato value chain. Adaptive capacity, the ability of farmers, traders, and processors to anticipate, respond to, and recover from climate shocks, holds the key to sustainable food and nutrition security.

By expanding access to irrigation, promoting early warning systems, applying improved varieties, and fostering community-based resource sharing, Nigeria’s tomato sector can transform vulnerability into resilience. With these enablers in place, production stability improves, income rises, and households are better positioned to maintain nutritious diets despite environmental stress.

Science to Practice: Building Resilience Across the Chain

Translating adaptation insights into practice demands actionable innovation. Strengthening adaptive capacity requires interventions that operate across the entire tomato value chain, from input supply to processing and distribution.

Climate-smart innovations, such as drought – and heat-tolerant tomato varieties, solar-powered irrigation systems, and low-cost post-harvest technologies, can enhance productivity and reduce waste. One promising approach is the development of solar-powered community processing hubs across key tomato-producing states. By enabling farmers to process surplus harvests into paste, puree, or dried tomatoes, these hubs extend shelf life, preserve nutrients, and ensure stable year-round availability.

Such an integrated solution bridges climate adaptation with nutrition outcomes, ensuring that even under erratic weather conditions, nutrient-rich tomato products remain accessible and affordable for households nationwide.

Policy and Institutional Pathways for Climate Adaptation

To scale impact, adaptation must move beyond isolated projects to become a national framework for resilience. The research underscores the importance of embedding climate adaptation within agricultural and nutrition policy through:

• Mainstreaming climate-smart technologies: Support research, seed development, and adoption of drought and heat-tolerant tomato varieties.

• Expanding access to finance and insurance: Introduce microcredit and index-based insurance tailored to smallholders to buffer climate-related losses.

• Strengthening extension and data systems: Equip extension agents with climate and nutrition knowledge; leverage digital platforms to deliver real-time advisories.

• Building nutrition-sensitive value chains: Promote fortified or nutrient-preserving tomato processing and integrate local producers into institutional feeding programs, such as schools and hospitals, to enhance the nutritional value of these products.

• Investing in rural infrastructure: Prioritise rural electrification, roads, and renewable-powered cold chains to minimise losses and sustain market access.

These policy pathways align agricultural resilience with nutritional security, ensuring that adaptation investments directly improve dietary outcomes.

Toward a Resilient and Nourished Future

The research on Nigeria’s tomato value chain offers a compelling reminder: food security cannot be separated from climate security. Strengthening adaptive capacity through knowledge, innovation, and collaboration transforms vulnerability into vitality.

The future of nutrition lies in adaptation. By empowering the farmers, processors, and traders who sustain our food systems, we lay the foundation for a more resilient agricultural economy and a healthier, nourished nation.

In an era of climate uncertainty, every resilient harvest becomes more than an agricultural victory; it becomes an act of nourishment, ensuring that food security endures from field to family table.

Dr Ololade Latifat Abdulrahman