What is the name of your organization?
Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Empowerment, Nigeria
What is the name of your solution?
SOFADRICLIMATE App
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Affordable climate-smart information bundled with weather-index micro-insurance to protect Nigerian smallholder crop farmers from climate shocks.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Nigeria
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Climate change is a major threat multiplier for hunger and poverty, especially in developing countries where agriculture underpins livelihoods. In Nigeria, over 121 million smallholder farmers rely on rain-fed agriculture, making them highly vulnerable to increasing climate variability. Fluctuating rainfall patterns and rising temperatures have severely impacted agricultural productivity, deepening food insecurity and poverty among rural households.
Evidence from a formative survey (Olowogbon et al., 2019) shows that 88% of farmers in Nigeria experienced losses due to erratic rainfall, losing an average of 1.165 hectares of maize per farmer—valued at N233,000 ($764). Despite this growing risk, most farmers still rely on traditional knowledge and peer advice, which are insufficient for navigating today’s complex climate challenges. Moreover, access to affordable weather-based insurance remains limited or non-existent.
To bridge this gap, the SOFADRICLIMATE app offers a bundled, low-cost solution that integrates personalized climate-smart advisory services with weather index-based micro-insurance. Leveraging scientific data and user-friendly technology, the app equips farmers with timely weather forecasts, climate-smart farming tips, and financial protection against climate shocks. By empowering farmers with actionable information and insurance coverage, SOFADRICLIMATE strengthens adaptive capacity, reduces climate risk exposure, and enhances the resilience and livelihoods of Nigeria’s smallholder farmers.
What is your solution?
SOFADRICLIMATE (www.sofadriclimate.com) is a web-based app designed to help smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria protect their farms and incomes from the impacts of climate change. It combines two powerful tools in a single, easy-to-use platform: personalized climate information and affordable weather index micro-insurance.
Using seasonal data forecasts from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), the app provides farmers with location-specific climate advice for better planning. Unlike typical weather apps that only provide daily forecasts, SOFADRICLIMATE gives farmers annual predictions, crop-specific calendars, and the best planting dates based on expected rainfall and temperature patterns. This helps farmers plan ahead and reduce the risk of crop failure.
In addition, the app offers weather index micro-insurance — a simple and affordable insurance product that pays farmers automatically when rainfall levels fall outside safe limits for crop growth.
Farmers sign up on the app, select their location and crops, receive tailored climate advice, and can easily subscribe to insurance. The entire process — from receiving information to buying insurance and getting claims paid — happens digitally.
SOFADRICLIMATE is currently available in 20 out of the 36 Nigerian states, helping farmers build resilience, increase productivity, and protect their livelihoods from climate shocks.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
SOFADRICLIMATE is designed to directly support Nigeria’s smallholder crop farmers — a population of over 121 million people who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. These farmers are spread across Nigeria’s six agro-ecological zones and typically cultivate less than 3 hectares of land. Most live in rural areas and face significant climate-related risks such as unpredictable rainfall, drought, and flooding, which threaten their crop yields, income, and food security.
Despite their vulnerability, these farmers are often underserved by existing climate information services and formal insurance products. Over 80% of them live below the poverty line, earning less than $2 per day. They have historically relied on informal knowledge, traditional farming practices, and limited local forecasts that do not meet their evolving climate adaptation needs.
Our preliminary survey found that 97% of these farmers own mobile phones, and 53% own smartphones — providing a valuable channel for digital solutions. SOFADRICLIMATE leverages this access to deliver personalized, location-specific climate advice and affordable weather index micro-insurance through a simple mobile app.
By doing so, the solution empowers smallholder farmers with timely information for better farm planning and provides financial protection against climate shocks — enabling them to increase productivity, reduce climate induced losses.
