The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) has unveiled a strategic push to generate high-integrity carbon credits from its expanding network of farm estates.
The initiative is designed to accelerate rural wealth creation and lift thousands of Nigerians into the middle-income economy.
Speaking at the COP30 Side Event hosted by NALDA in Belém, Brazil, the Executive Secretary/CEO, Cornelius Adebayo said “the agency’s carbon-credit initiative is not only a climate solution but also a socio-economic reform that empowers farmers.”
Under NALDA’s Renewed Hope Mega Farm Estates, each farmer is allocated five hectares of farmland, enabling them to earn sustainable agricultural income while also benefiting from a share of carbon credit revenues generated through structured tree-planting and estate-wide reforestation.
Adebayo said; “Our goal is simple, we want to move Nigerians from a low-income bracket to a true middle-class economy. By combining agricultural productivity with carbon-credit earnings, farmers can become independent, prosperous and globally competitive.”
The farm estates, ranging from 5,000 to 25,000 hectares, are fully mechanised agricultural settlements equipped with roads, irrigation systems, processing hubs, energy systems, and perimeter fencing lined with thousands of climate-resilient trees planted specifically to generate certified carbon removals.
At the event, NALDA also highlighted its Plantation Carbon Roadmap, which places over 20,000 hectares of restored and rehabilitated plantations under globally accepted Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) protocols to ensure transparency and credibility in the voluntary carbon market.
“NALDA is building a carbon-credit framework that uplifts communities,” he said. “Every credit earned must translate into improved incomes, restored landscapes, and strengthened food systems. That is the value we bring to global climate action,”Adebayo said.
The side event attracted a wide range of participants, including climate negotiators, development partners, private-sector leaders, technical experts, financial institutions, and international observers, all of whom engaged with NALDA’s vision for integrating climate finance with agricultural development.
The agency further announced that new cooperation agreements were signed at the event to enhance verification capacity, registry alignment, and global collaboration.