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At Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Stephanie Michael, a final-year Crop Science and Horticulture student, points toward a makeshift nursery, a thatched-roof structure supported by bamboo sticks, housing plants labelled with students’ names. “That’s our nursery for plants,” she said.

Exposed to direct sunlight and an uncontrolled environment, the plants struggle to thrive, mirroring the challenges faced by students like Ms Michael. Without a greenhouse, the Faculty of Agriculture cannot provide the controlled conditions essential for experiments, limiting both plant growth and student learning.

A greenhouse is a structure designed to regulate the temperature and humidity inside. Various types of greenhouses exist, but they all feature areas covered with transparent materials that allow sunlight to enter while retaining heat. The most common materials used in modern greenhouses for walls and roofs are rigid plastic made of polycarbonate, plastic film made of polyethylene, or glass panes.

The absence of a greenhouse severely hampers Stephanie’s ability to complete her final-year research project, “Effects of Calcium-Based Soil Amendments on Tomato Varieties,” which began in August 2024.

Her study requires a controlled environment to germinate tomato seeds in seed trays and monitor their growth. Obtaining seed trays is manageable but preserving them is difficult, as Nnamdi Azikiwe University has neither a greenhouse nor a screenhouse. Ms Michael must manually move her trays outdoors twice daily for sunlight, a labour-intensive process that disrupts her experiment.

“Even if I manage to grow the seeds on the tray, replanting is a huge challenge,” she told PREMIUM TIMES in April. “The soil here has nematodes, water access is limited, and the plants are dying off.” A functioning greenhouse would resolve these issues, providing regulated conditions for her research.

With only three months left to meet her project submission deadline, Ms Michael’s challenges highlight a broader issue: inadequate infrastructure stifling the efforts of young Nigerians eager to pursue innovative practices in agriculture.

The lack of greenhouses forces students to seek costly and unreliable alternatives.

Ms Michael told PREMIUM TIMES that her uncle had promised to help her by building a screenhouse, but he later changed the plan. Instead, he offered to build it on his own farm, which is far from the university.

A screenhouse uses mesh walls and sometimes a roof, allowing natural airflow while protecting plants from pests and larger animals. While greenhouse and screenhouse may differ in mechanism, the results are the same.

This new arrangement would make it hard for Ms Michael to reach the screenhouse regularly and carry out her research properly. She would need to spend at least N3,000 every day for four months on transportation, and the farm does not have enough water or proper security, making it an unsafe and costly option.

“The school environment is secure, but the farm isn’t,” she noted. “I’d need to buy water daily, and the plants require constant attention, exposing me to security risks.”

The financial burden of alternatives is daunting. Ms Michael thought about building a temporary screenhouse made of bamboo, but the cost of N350,000 is twice what she pays for school each year and far beyond what she can afford.

Despite her determination to stick with her research topic, she is contemplating changing the tomato seed variety, a decision that adds to her expenses. Her passion for agriculture, undermined by these resource constraints, reflects a systemic problem faced by many students, particularly during their mandatory one-year Industrial Training (IT), where access to functional facilities is critical for practical skill development.

PREMIUM TIMES’ found that the issue extends beyond Nnamdi Azikiwe University. At Yakubu Gowon University (formerly University of Abuja), Joy Ogbole, a final year Agric Extension student, noted that they had a greenhouse that is only partially functional.

“Greenhouses usually have irrigation systems to channel water through pipes, but ours isn’t well-equipped,” she said. Students must fetch water in buckets, and the facility cannot accommodate all learners, leaving some outside during practical sessions.

This lack of capacity and functionality adds stress and limits hands-on learning. Ms Ogbole’s experience during her IT at Golden Fingers and Ranches Farm in Zuba, where she used a fully functional greenhouse, was transformative.

There, she explained how she met students from institutions like the University of Ilorin and Ahmadu Bello University, both of which have operational greenhouses for teaching.