<p>Specialized public institutions are established to promote specific programs aimed at meeting sustainable development goals, but limited research information is available on how they promote climate change resilience and adaptation of smallholder farmers, even though such farmers constitute the bulk of the world’s farming population. This paper examines the role of the IFAD-CASP (International Fund for Agricultural Development - Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Program) program executed between 2013 and 2021 in Sokoto and Katsina states of Nigeria in promoting the adoption of weather and climate services among smallholder farmers. The study employed a mixed-methods approach involving 595 farmers. Interviews and focus group discussions were held with farmers, agrometeorologists, and extension officers in both program-benefitting states and a control state (Nasarawa) to evaluate the effectiveness of weather and climate services uptake by the farmers. The research reveals that the intervention significantly enhanced the utilization of only one out of the five weather and climate services produced by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency. Despite this, the study found a lack of effective collaborative linkages between weather and climate services producers, enablers, and consumers in the two states, resulting in an overall low level of weather and climate services utilization. The paper recommends that institutional interventions, like IFAD-CASP, should foster the interactive involvement of diverse partners, including private and public media providers, ICT experts, extension officials, farmer groups, and climate scientists in climate change management. Such collaboration could build a comprehensive enterprise facilitating the development, collation, dissemination, and utilization of weather and climate services that align closely with farmers’ needs and expectations.</p>