Nigerian women farmers are shifting from the high cost of diesel to the long-term savings offered by solar energy. Despite persistent challenges in accessing renewable energy solutions, these farmers are adopting clean energy technologies to reduce Nigeria’s estimated $10bn in food losses, transforming agricultural production and post-harvest practices in the process, reports ARINZE NWAFOR

Chinasa Asonye, a farmer in Ikorodu, Lagos State, wakes up each morning to the cost of running her fish ponds and poultry pens. By dawn, she must ensure water is pumped into the ponds. She must light her poultry house and keep it ventilated. Her birds need feeding, and fish require fresh water. All these tasks depend on the increasingly expensive energy in Nigeria.

Many farmers, like Asonye, the National Secretary of the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation, have long relied on self-generated power. It meant spending time and money to purchase petrol for the generator.

Each week, the SWOFON leader spent tens of thousands of naira on fuel purchases. With her generator running almost nonstop because of unreliable electricity supply, visits from mechanics to fix recurring faults became a regular part of her routine.

Asonye told The PUNCH that the expense of sustaining her farm kept rising as power supply worsened. In certain months, she estimated that operating the generator cost nearly N400,000, funds that could otherwise have been used to expand output, employ additional workers, or boost savings within her cooperative.

A conversation with a friend later proved transformative. The friend had adopted solar power for her own business and encouraged Asonye to explore the option. At first, she was hesitant because of the upfront cost. However, the Ikorodu-based farmer weighed the one-time investment against the recurring expenses of fuel purchases and generator repairs, and the decision became difficult to dismiss.

Today, solar panels power her poultry business and supply water to her fish farm, activities that previously relied entirely on diesel and petrol. Rather than keeping the benefits to herself, she connected members of her cooperative with the same installer, enabling dozens of women to access renewable energy through cooperative financing instead of commercial bank loans.

The benefits of renewable energy have extended far beyond lower electricity bills for these farmers.

Women engaged in poultry, fish farming and agricultural processing now use solar-powered equipment to sustain their businesses while repaying affordable cooperative loans. Instead of spending scarce capital on diesel, many now invest more in production.

“Renewable energy products like solar are something that most farmers are now embracing because of what is happening with electricity. Farmers now use solar pumps to pump water, poultry farmers install solar for lighting, while processors are also adopting solar systems,” Asonye said.

She recounted, “For the past six months, there was no electricity in my area. I was buying fuel almost four times every week and spending nearly N30,000 each time. When I calculated the cost of fuel and generator maintenance, I realised I was spending almost N400,000 every month just to keep the generator running.”

Asonye’s decision to adopt solar quickly spread across her cooperative movement.

The women farmers’ leader explained that after installing her own system, she persuaded members of her cooperative to finance similar projects through internal savings and affordable loans.

“So now we give them loans, they install solar (products) on their farms and pay back gradually. Those running fish ponds, poultry farms and processing businesses have all benefited. It has really helped the women,” she said.

Rather than approaching commercial banks with stringent collateral requirements and high interest rates, members pooled their savings through the Ogbonge Women Agricultural Cooperative Multipurpose Society, one of several cooperatives under SWOFON.

The arrangement reflects an increasingly popular financing model among rural women.

Through the Village Savings and Loans Association scheme introduced with support from development partners, groups of between 25 and 30 women contribute savings, lend to one another and recycle repayments into fresh loans. The approach has enabled members to purchase productive assets, including solar systems, avoiding the high financing costs associated with conventional lending.

According to Asonye, the association supplemented members’ savings with additional financial support, enabling more women to acquire solar equipment and repay it gradually through the cooperative.

She noted that the success of the programme has become so visible that financial institutions now approach the cooperative instead of the other way around.

“Today, banks are the ones coming to us because they see how we save and repay our loans. Even the Bank of Industry has approached us with single-digit interest loans, although we still have to be careful about hidden charges,” she said.

The experience mirrors a growing shift across Nigeria’s agricultural landscape.


For decades, conversations around farming largely focused on seeds, fertiliser, irrigation and access to markets. Increasingly, however, energy is the factor taking centre stage.

Without reliable electricity, harvested crops spoil before reaching consumers, fish processors struggle to preserve their products, milling costs remain high, and farmers lose income that should have been reinvested in expanding production.

High post-harvest losses

The Food and Agriculture Organisation noted in a 2022 publication that reliable data on post-harvest losses remain scarce despite increasing political attention to the issue, making it harder for governments to design evidence-based interventions and track progress towards reducing food losses.

Regardless, the government has estimates which illustrate the scale of the crisis.

Speaking at the Nigerian Economic Summit in 2025, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, disclosed that Nigeria loses more than $10bn annually due to poor storage facilities and post-harvest losses. He also revealed that only three of the 17 grain silos concessioned by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission remain functional, while the rest have been abandoned.

Against that backdrop, the United Nations designated 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, recognising women as indispensable actors across global agrifood systems despite decades of under-recognition.

The declaration seeks to draw global attention to women who cultivate fields, process crops, transport food, trade agricultural products, and sustain household nutrition, while still facing significant barriers to land ownership, finance, technology and modern equipment.

In Nigeria, where women account for an estimated 70 per cent of agricultural labour, the designation also throws renewed attention on a simple reality emerging from communities like Ikorodu: reducing food losses increasingly depends not only on producing more food but also on ensuring that farmers have the energy needed to preserve, process and profit from what they already produce.

Renewable energy solution

Renewable energy remains the critical missing piece. Advocates argue that Nigeria’s deepening food insecurity crisis can no longer be viewed solely as an agricultural problem; it is increasingly becoming an energy issue as well.

Across farming communities, millions of tonnes of vegetables, fruits, grains, fish and other perishable products spoil before reaching consumers due to limited access to affordable cold storage facilities, irrigation systems, milling machines and processing equipment. These shortcomings directly result in reduced earnings for farmers, rising food prices and worsening poverty levels.

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and Mastercard Foundation, through the Energising Women and Youth in Agri-Food Systems programme, are attempting to reverse that trend by helping women farmers and entrepreneurs gain access to productive-use energy equipment. Rather than promoting electricity merely for lighting homes, the initiative supports technologies that generate income, including solar-powered cold rooms, irrigation pumps, milling machines and processing equipment.

Another initiative by Global Energy Alliance, the Productive Use Financing Facility, has demonstrated how targeted financing can accelerate renewable energy adoption across six African countries, including Nigeria.


Between 2022 and 2024, the pilot programme distributed about 16,000 productive-use appliances, unlocked $83.5m in financing, created or improved more than 21,800 jobs and livelihoods, and generated 13 times more follow-on investment for every dollar invested. Nearly half of the end users were women, many of whom expanded existing businesses or established new enterprises after acquiring renewable energy equipment.

Industry stakeholders argue that these interventions are becoming increasingly important as food insecurity worsens.

In a virtual interview with The PUNCH, Co-Founder of Sunray Carbon Technologies, Olaedo Osoka, said Nigeria’s projected increase in food insecurity should be viewed as a national emergency requiring energy solutions alongside agricultural reforms.

“What we’re looking at is about 35 million Nigerians facing acute hunger. Those are real people. Food insecurity is not necessarily an issue of production. A great part of the problem is post-harvest losses. Historically, we’ve lost around 50 per cent of what we grow before it even reaches the market,” she said.

Osoka explained that renewable energy provides the infrastructure needed to prevent those losses. “If you are growing tomatoes or vegetables and need to get them to market, you need solar cold storage. If you want to continue growing during the dry season, you need solar irrigation. If you want to reduce processing costs by moving away from fossil fuels, you need electric mills. These are not nice-to-have assets. They are critical infrastructure,” the renewable energy expert said.

She argued that government and development institutions have traditionally treated food security and energy access as separate conversations, despite their close relationship.

“I think the reason there has been relative silence is that food insecurity and energy access are discussed in different rooms, with different donors and different ministries. Nobody is really owning the connection. That is why programmes like EWAS are important because they connect both sides and help unlock these productive assets for farmers,” she said.

While technology continues to improve, stakeholders insist that finance remains the biggest obstacle preventing women farmers from adopting productive renewable energy.

Women often lack formal land titles that could serve as collateral for commercial loans, leaving many unable to purchase productive equipment despite managing substantial agricultural enterprises.

Osoka described the challenge as both a productivity gap and a capital gap. “When you don’t own land, you cannot use it as collateral. When you cannot collateralise your land, you cannot borrow to buy a solar pump or a milling machine. We have under-resourced the people doing most of the agricultural work, and that means we are losing enormous productivity across the economy,” she said.

Rather than relying solely on traditional banking models, she urged financial institutions to develop products that reflect the realities of women farmers, saying, “We need financial products that recognise seasonal incomes, collective savings models and equipment financing. We also need an ecosystem approach where financing, equipment, training and market access all move together.”

She added that carbon finance could provide another source of affordable capital for renewable energy investments.

“When rural communities switch from kerosene to solar or from open-fire cooking to clean cooking solutions, greenhouse gas emissions fall. International buyers are willing to pay for those reductions through carbon markets. That creates another revenue stream that can subsidise the cost of renewable energy assets,” she explained.

Osoka disclosed that Sunray Carbon Technologies is working to unlock those international carbon markets so renewable energy developers and farming communities can access commercial climate finance beyond grants and donor funding.

Women implementation partners

As the United Nations marks 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, Osoka believes the designation should trigger more than ceremonial celebrations.

She warned that international declarations only matter if they produce measurable improvements for women working across agricultural value chains.

“A declaration can either create momentum or become another year of speeches. Right now, there is attention from policymakers, financiers and journalists. We have an opportunity to document what is working, what is not working and hold governments accountable for commitments they have already made,” she said.

Osoka noted that success would mean policy reforms that reach women on the ground, measurable increases in productive-use renewable energy, and greater participation by women as entrepreneurs in the clean energy industry.

“The first thing is a concrete policy change that reaches women farmers. The second is measurable growth in productive-use energy. EWAS, for example, is targeting four-to-six-fold increases in farmers’ incomes. Finally, I want to see more international climate finance reaching women, not just as farmers but also as product developers and entrepreneurs.”

Perhaps her strongest message centred on language. Throughout development programmes, women involved in agriculture are routinely described as beneficiaries. Osoka believes that the description fundamentally misunderstands their role: “We have to see women as operators, entrepreneurs and business owners. They have been running agricultural value chains for generations. The beneficiary framing is inaccurate and counterproductive because if you design programmes for beneficiaries instead of entrepreneurs, you design different financial products, different expectations and different accountability structures.”

She stressed that women farmers had already demonstrated initiative long before development programmes arrived, saying, “I don’t think this is a question of agency. Women are already doing the work. The real issue is access. The question is how we make that existing agency more productive through better financing, infrastructure and markets.”

Her advice to young Nigerian women considering businesses in renewable energy or agribusiness was equally direct.

She noted, “The opportunity is more real today than ever before. Agriculture, clean energy and climate finance represent one of the biggest opportunities on the continent. Raising money will not be easy, and women will often have to prove themselves more than their male counterparts, but that is no reason not to start. Be strategic, build alliances, know your numbers better than anyone else and choose your partners carefully.”

For Osoka, the economic case is already settled: “Farmers relying on diesel can reduce production costs by between 30 and 50 per cent through renewable energy. That means lower operating costs, more disposable income and greater profitability. This is not simply about protecting the environment. It is about saving money, increasing incomes and building stronger businesses.”

Building businesses

For impact investor All On, renewable energy’s biggest contribution to agriculture goes beyond providing electricity. The organisation believes productive energy can fundamentally change the economics of farming by helping women preserve more food, increase output and build commercially viable businesses.

Established a decade ago to address Nigeria’s electricity access deficit, All On has invested almost $50m in renewable energy businesses and supported more than 50 companies working across the sector. Through those investments, the organisation estimates that about two million Nigerians have gained improved access to electricity.

In a virtual interview, a business advisory associate for All On, Victor Alagbe, said the next phase of Nigeria’s energy transition must focus on enabling productive economic activities rather than merely connecting households to electricity.

“What we’ve realised is that, at the end of the day, the food security story is more or less an energy story,” Alagbe said.

“If you look across the agricultural value chain, from cultivation to processing and market distribution, many activities are still done manually. That leads to lower productivity, post-harvest losses and reduced incomes. Renewable energy replaces many of those manual activities with solar-powered solutions that improve productivity, reduce losses and increase farmers’ earnings,” he added.

He stressed that the impact is visible throughout the agricultural cycle. For instance, a farmer who once relied on manual irrigation can use a solar-powered irrigation pump to cultivate all year. Another who previously dried produce under unsafe conditions can process crops more quickly with solar-powered dryers and milling equipment. Market traders who once rushed to sell tomatoes before they spoiled can preserve them longer inside solar-powered cold rooms.

The combined effect is higher productivity and lower food losses. He remarked, “With solar-powered cooling systems, women selling tomatoes, peppers and vegetables no longer have to fear losing all their income because they cannot sell everything in one day. They can preserve their produce and sell when market conditions are better.”

Alagbe cited companies deploying productive-use equipment across Nigeria, including solar-powered cold storage providers, irrigation technology firms and renewable energy businesses supporting agricultural processing: “The ripple effect matters because when one woman builds a successful agricultural business, she employs others, sends her children to school and strengthens the economy of her entire community.”

Beyond investing directly in renewable energy companies, All On is one of the implementing partners for the EWAS programme, an initiative of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.

Within the programme, the organisation provides technical assistance, business development support, and capacity building to companies that supply productive-use energy equipment.

Alagbe noted that the programme deliberately addresses the upfront cost, which is one of the biggest barriers preventing women farmers from adopting renewable energy.

He said, “Financing has been observed to be one of the biggest constraints. Through EWAS, productive-use energy companies receive results-based subsidies that reduce the cost of equipment for women farmers. That allows them to make more flexible repayments while also receiving the training needed to operate these businesses successfully.”

He explained that many women initially hesitate to adopt unfamiliar technologies, making business support just as important as financing: “The programme solves not only the financing challenge but also the trust challenge. When farmers understand how the equipment works and see others succeeding with it, adoption becomes much easier.”

According to the business adviser, EWAS aims to create about 17,000 jobs across Nigeria and Ethiopia, improve more than 136,000 livelihoods and increase participating women’s incomes by between four and six times.

Alagbe explained that these targets demonstrate why productive-use energy should no longer be viewed as a niche intervention.

He said, “This is about validating an ecosystem that works. When women gain access to the right equipment, financing and training, they build stronger businesses, employ more people and strengthen food systems.”

New narrative

Both Alagbe and Osoka believe the language surrounding women farmers needs to evolve alongside investment.

Development programmes have traditionally described women as beneficiaries receiving assistance. They argue that women already drive agricultural production.

Alagbe remarked that the numbers speak for themselves: “In Africa, about 70 per cent of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, and around 60 per cent of those workers are women. In Nigeria, agriculture contributes roughly one-quarter of GDP. These women are not simply people in need of support. They are operators holding up the economy.”

He argued that changing that perception would influence everything from financing decisions to public policy, saying, “When women are recognised as business operators instead of dependents, they gain access to better financing, better equipment and better training. Investors begin to see businesses worth investing in rather than projects requiring charity.”

That thinking aligns with the broader ambitions of the United Nations’ International Year of the Woman Farmer, which seeks to close long-standing gender gaps in agriculture while recognising women’s contributions across food systems.

Government efforts

Government officials are also urging policymakers to rethink renewable energy’s role within Nigeria’s economy.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, recently argued that renewable energy should no longer be viewed simply as a tool for expanding electricity access.

He noted that instead of distributed renewable energy systems, including mini-grids, embedded generation and solar-plus-storage technologies, they should be recognised as industrial infrastructure capable of supporting agro-processing clusters, markets, manufacturing hubs and commercial enterprises.

According to Aliyu, the most sustainable renewable energy projects are those that convert electricity into productive economic activity rather than merely connecting customers to the grid.

Whereas a mini-grid supplying electricity to homes undoubtedly improves lives, one powering homes alongside rice mills, cold rooms, clinics, markets and small businesses transforms local economies by generating income and attracting private investment.

The REA boss maintained that agriculture should become one of the principal demand anchors around which renewable energy projects are designed, warning that unreliable electricity continues to undermine agro-processing, reduce farmers’ incomes and weaken agricultural value chains.

Across Nigeria, similar stories like the women farmers leader Asonye’s are emerging as solar-powered irrigation pumps extend growing seasons, cold rooms preserve vegetables and fruits, electric mills accelerate processing, and renewable energy lowers production costs.