Fresh Direct Nigeria Container Farms
Abuja, Nigeria · Operator: Fresh Direct Nigeria (agri-tech social enterprise founded by Angel Adelaja)
Overview
A pioneering venture in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, growing vegetables inside the city with vertical hydroponic farms built from shipping containers. Achieving high yields with little land and water, it has been showcased at home and abroad as a model for drawing urban youth into agriculture.
Citizen participation
An urban-farming venture founded in 2014 by epidemiologist-turned-entrepreneur Angel Adelaja, described as Africa's first containerised farm. It shows that landless city dwellers can farm, and uses training and site visits for young people and women to reframe agriculture as an attractive career.
Operating model
A social-enterprise model: stackable hydroponic container farms installed on urban plots grow lettuce and other vegetables sold to hotels, restaurants and consumers, alongside container-farm installation services and training.
Impact
Sparked interest in urban agriculture as a working example of landless farming, creating jobs and training opportunities for youth and women, and enabling locally grown fresh leafy vegetables in Nigerian cities.
Crops
- lettuce
- leafy greens
- herbs
- tomato
- vegetables
Scale
Stackable shipping-container hydroponic farms on urban plots in Abuja, plus mini-campuses in Osun State; a 20-ft container is said to yield as much as roughly a football pitch and a half
In the media（3）
Web articles and features that cover this case.
- ArticleAngel Adelaja: My life as a city farmer (The Nation, Nigeria) ↗thenationonlineng.net
- ArticleFresh Direct Makes Landless Farming Possible for City Dwellers (Technext) ↗technext24.com
- ArticleGrowing exotic veggies with neither soil nor sunlight — meet the magician from Nigeria (WeeTracker) ↗weetracker.com
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