iSDA is proud to announce our role as Specialist AI Partner for Soil Intelligence & Fertiliser Advisory in Nigeria’s digital agricultural extension system — IrokoAI — delivering cutting-edge, site-specific agronomic recommendations through our Virtual Agronomist API. Led by Extension Africa, this initiative marks a significant step in scaling precision agriculture to millions of farmers across Nigeria.
The timing is right. Nigeria is accelerating its shift from generalised farming advice to site-specific prescriptions — a national priority for a country where smallholder farmers produce 70% of the food supply. iSDA’s Virtual Agronomist is part of the technical foundation making that shift possible at scale.
iSDA’s Role: Soil Intelligence at Scale
As a specialist AI partner within the IrokoAI ecosystem, iSDA will provide seamless API-based integration of our soil databases, AI and machine learning models, and fertiliser recommendation engines — ensuring that every query related to soil intelligence and nutrient management is answered with precision across various delivery channels, including IVR, voice, SMS, and digital interfaces.
When a farmer’s query reached the IrokoAI platform, it is classified and routed to the right specialist. Queries within iSDA’s scope — soil and nutrient management — come to us. Queries covering pest management, market access, or other areas, go to the relevant IrokoAI partner. Each specialist does what it does best, and the platform holds it all together.
To make sure the advice stays sharp, iSDA will implement internal validation and monitoring processes, periodically reviewing and recalibrating recommendations based on field feedback, seasonal conditions, and updated soil data, ensuring recommendations stay accurate and grounded at every stage.
iSDA's Jamie Collinson (left) and Extension Africa's Tajudeen Yahaya (right) making the partnership official.
Extension Africa’s CEO, Tajudeen Yahaya, captures the scale of what this partnership is building:
“To truly transform the last mile, we are moving beyond the era of the generalist extension worker toward the holistic AI-empowered agribusiness extensionist. For our agents to provide comprehensive value, they must be as proficient in soil intelligence and precision nutrient management as they are in input selection, weather patterns, and market access. This is why bringing iSDA into the Iroko AI ecosystem as our Specialist AI Partner for Soil Intelligence & Fertiliser Advisory is highly intentional and strategic.”
A High-Impact Partnership Built for Scale
To transform a system of this magnitude, the IrokoAI initiative brings together a powerful public-private ecosystem. iSDA is proud to work alongside leading research and industry organisations, including Nigeria-based research institution International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and other digital advisory specialists like PxD and Digital Green.
This network aims to integrate over 50 private agricultural companies — including input providers, financial institutions, and agtech players — directly into state agricultural development programmes.
Working across this ecosystem, the project delivers through a phased rollout starting in Kaduna, Gombe, and Oyo states, before scaling nationwide.
The Roadmap to 2028
What This Signals
As Africa’s largest agricultural economy, Nigeria’s move toward a centralised, AI-enabled advisory system is a significant milestone for the continent. By integrating specialised AI partners, research institutions, and the private sector into the national infrastructure, the IrokoAI platform ensures that the farmers who feed Nigeria have access to the same quality of scientific insight as large-scale commercial operations.
For iSDA, this marks our first integration into a national-level advisory system — a natural next step in our work across the continent. It also represents a strategic step forward in our mission to make soil intelligence accessible at scale, helping to build a more resilient and productive agricultural future for farmers in Nigeria and beyond.
We are proud to work alongside Extension Africa and the full IrokoAI partnership as this initiative takes shape.
