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Russia and Nigeria have signed an agreement to cooperate on seed production and crop breeding, the two sides confirmed on Wednesday during the 27th Golden Autumn Agro-Industrial Exhibition currently being held in Moscow.
The MoU was signed at the West African collective stand, which featured representatives from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. Vyacheslav Lukomets, director of Russia’s P.P. Lukyanenko National Grain Center, and Ayodeji Oludare Sotinrin, director general of Nigeria’s Bank of Agriculture, were the signatories.
Lukomets said that “Science lies at the core of all development processes.” He emphasized that the partnership was initiated by business leaders who recognized that cooperation would be ineffective without scientific involvement.
Sotinrin described Russia as “A world leaders in seed production. Nigeria seeks to become an equal partner through a knowledge-sharing alliance. We believe in the effectiveness of this partnership and in the mutual exchange of knowledge.”
Andrey Razin, the Russian Deputy Minister of Agriculture highlighted Moscow’s commitment to partnering with African nations in achieving food security and sustainable agricultural development, saying that “Russia is ready to work with the African continent both by supplying our products and purchasing a range of goods that interest us, such as coffee, tea, flowers, fruits, and many other items that can find their consumers in our large market.”
The new partnership builds on Russia’s broader agricultural engagement with Africa, combining commercial exports with food aid programs. In July, Burkina Faso received more than 700 tons of yellow split peas from Russia as humanitarian aid.
Russia’s agricultural exports to Africa surpassed US$7 billion in value in 2024, a 19% year-on-year increase, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Russian food products reached 45 African countries, with Egypt remaining the largest importer of Russian wheat.
Climate change is affecting agricultural productivity, with Russia at the forefront of genetically-modified crops. These range from saltwater resistant crops such as rice, as well as seeds that can provide crops more resistant to heat and disease – of particular interest to the African agricultural sector.
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