Importation, insecurity threaten Nigeria’s food sufficiency

Nigeria joins the rest of the world today to mark World Food Day, an annual event celebrated on October 16 to commemorate the establishment of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 1945.

The 2026 World Food Day’s theme, “Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow,” urges countries to improve their food systems to ensure food security for future generations.

However, Nigeria’s efforts to achieve food sufficiency have faced major setbacks since 2024 due to food imports, insecurity that has displaced farmers from their communities, production challenges, irregularities in food marketing and frequent policy changes.

In July 2024, the Federal Government announced a 150-day duty-free import window for selected food commodities in a bid to curb rising food inflation caused by changes in government policies on subsidies and foreign exchange.

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Although the measure was intended to ease the rising cost of food, many local farmers said the imports undermined their investments and affected their ability to compete with foreign products.

Under the policy, the 20 per cent duty on wheat and beans was removed, alongside the 30 per cent duty on husked brown rice and the five per cent duty on sorghum, millet and maize.

Data from the Nigeria Customs Service showed that the Federal Government lost more than N188 billion in revenue following the suspension of import tariffs on food commodities.

Farmers who had invested heavily in labour, transportation, agricultural inputs and other production costs were among those affected.

The influx of imported food forced some farmers to abandon production because they could no longer sell their produce at prices that covered their costs.

Food import bills

Data from the United States Department of Agriculture and World Grains showed that Nigeria imported about 10.1 million tonnes of grain in the 2025/2026 marketing year.

The breakdown showed that wheat imports reached 6.7 million tonnes, up from 6.25 million tonnes in the previous year. Rice imports stood at 3.2 million tonnes, while maize imports rose to 260,000 tonnes from between 125,000 and 135,000 tonnes in previous periods.

The figures point to Nigeria’s continued dependence on imported grains despite its agricultural potential.

The Central Bank of Nigeria estimated that the country spent $2.34 billion on food imports in 2025 alone.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also reported a sharp increase in expenditure on food and beverages, which rose to about N7.65 trillion in 2025 from N6.58 trillion in the previous year, representing an increase of N1.07 trillion.

The local rice industry, which had attracted significant domestic and international investments, has also come under pressure from rising imports, widespread smuggling and unstable prices.

The Director-General of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, Dr Andy Ekwelem, recently said that about 90 of the more than 150 rice mills in the country had shut down.

He said the remaining mills were operating at between 30 and 70 per cent of their installed capacity.

At a recent meeting with the ministers of agriculture and food security, the Chairman of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, Mohammed Abubakar Maifata, raised concerns over what he described as the continued large-scale importation of rice.

The government officials, however, reportedly said they were unaware of the scale of the imports.

Economic risks of food imports

An agricultural economist, Dr Nathaniel Gas, said Nigeria’s growing dependence on imported food presented both opportunities and challenges for food security, raising concerns about the future of local agricultural production and the affordability of food for millions of households.

He said food imports could help bridge gaps in domestic supply, but excessive reliance on foreign products that Nigeria could produce locally exposed the country to economic risks, including exchange-rate fluctuations and increases in global prices.

“When the naira depreciates against the dollar, importers spend more to purchase food from abroad, and the additional costs are often transferred to consumers, just as the country had experienced with wheat during the Russia/Ukraine war.

“This clearly shows that imported food does not always translate into cheaper prices in local markets. Importation also killed our cotton and tomato sectors and posed a serious threat to the poultry industry,” he said.

Gas explained that the situation also placed pressure on local farmers, who were already grappling with high production costs, insecurity, expensive fertilisers, inadequate irrigation and poor access to storage and transportation facilities.

He said when imported commodities competed with locally produced alternatives, farmers often struggled to sell their harvests at prices that covered their production costs.

He, however, noted that food imports were not entirely harmful, as they could help prevent shortages when domestic production fell below demand.

Insecurity, other challenges

Farmers in several states, including Niger, Kaduna, Plateau, Zamfara, Katsina, Borno, Taraba, Benue and Kogi, are grappling with serious security challenges that threaten agricultural production and food security.

Many have been forced to flee their homes, abandon their farms and lose their sources of livelihood.

Kidnappings and attacks have also prevented farmers from accessing their farms and harvesting their crops, worsening the threat to food availability and supply.

These challenges have disrupted the production of various crops and livestock, making it increasingly difficult to ensure a stable food supply across the country.

Beyond insecurity, the agricultural sector faces several challenges, including high production costs per hectare, expensive livestock farming, underdeveloped market systems, poor infrastructure for value addition and dependence on imported food.

The collapse of government financial support schemes, such as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme for smallholder farmers, has further compounded the problem.

Food fraud, including the adulteration of products to increase their perceived economic value, and inadequate regulatory oversight also threaten the sector.

High borrowing costs, with bank interest rates in double digits, have made it difficult for farmers and agribusinesses to access financing.

Climate extremes, pest outbreaks and insecurity have also discouraged many financial institutions from lending to the agricultural sector, further limiting investment and production.

Dr Michael Ononugbo, Deputy Director and Special Assistant in the Office of the Deputy Governor, Economic Policy Directorate, Central Bank of Nigeria, said a thriving agricultural sector was critical not only to food production but also to employment generation, poverty reduction, trade expansion and macroeconomic stability.

He, however, noted that the sector continued to face structural constraints that limited investment and productivity.

Ononugbo said agricultural interventions must translate into measurable improvements in productivity, incomes, food security, employment, resilience and broad-based economic development.

Similarly, the Nigeria Country Director of AGRA, Dr Rufus Idris, said in Abuja recently that the average age of Nigerian farmers was between 50 and 60, while more than 70 per cent of the country’s population was below 30.

He said Nigeria’s future food security depended largely on creating opportunities for young people to engage in agricultural enterprises.

Idris warned that with Nigeria’s population projected to exceed 400 million in the coming years, the country needed concerted efforts to enable young people to participate in food production and processing.

He said failure to engage more young people in the sector could make achieving food security a major challenge for the country.

Experts warned that the challenges confronting the agricultural sector could deepen Nigeria’s dependence on food imports, as some crop and livestock farmers have abandoned production due to market distortions and rising costs.

The poultry industry has also been affected, with many farmers reportedly forced out of business by high production costs and shortages of essential inputs.

The rising costs of day-old chicks, energy, transportation, logistics, labour and other production inputs have increased the cost of producing poultry meat and eggs, making them less affordable for many households.

Food processing

Young agricultural entrepreneurs who spoke to Daily Trust identified several challenges holding back their businesses, particularly inadequate processing infrastructure, limited access to finance and weak market support.

Baliqees Salaudeen, an agripreneur, said the lack of processing facilities was a major obstacle to the growth of young businesses in the sector.

“Young people are told to move beyond production into processing, but you cannot process to certified standards from your parents’ backyard. We need shared post-harvest facilities and aggregation hubs, built to certified standards, so young processors do not each carry the cost of heavy equipment,” she said.

Another young agricultural entrepreneur, Tobi Jeremiah Olanrewaju, identified some of the major bottlenecks in the food production chain.

“Every emerging agripreneur faces the same three bottlenecks: volatile prices, a lack of finance designed for young people, and weak ecosystem support. When you produce at scale without the means to store or process, the aggregator sets your price,” he said.

Farmers count losses

Farmers interviewed by Daily Trust identified the high cost of fertilisers, chemicals, tractor hiring and diesel as major obstacles to sustainable agricultural production.

They said that despite spending heavily on farm inputs, the prices they received for their produce remained low, making farming increasingly unprofitable.

Alhaji Sale Binnare, a large-scale farmer in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of Taraba State, said recent increases in the prices of diesel and petrol had forced tractor operators to raise hiring charges by more than 30 per cent.

He said farm produce prices had remained low despite the rising cost of inputs.

According to him, freshly harvested maize sells for between N22,000 and N23,000 per bag in many rural areas of Taraba State, while a bag of NPK fertiliser costs between N45,000 and N50,000.

He added that in areas without filling stations, petrol and diesel sell for between N1,500 and N2,200 per litre.

Binnare said many farmers had reduced the scale of their operations this year, particularly in the production of food crops such as maize, cassava, millet and sorghum.

He also predicted a decline in irrigation farming during the current season, saying many irrigation farmers suffered losses last year.

“It is not wise for any farmer to invest his capital and at the end of harvest he will not recover what he invested. Worse still, many farmers take loans, and because of the losses they encounter, some are forced to sell their houses and farmland to repay the loans,” he said.

Tanko Bobbo Andami, a former chairman of the Rice Farmers Association and a large-scale farmer in Taraba State, also said farming had become unprofitable due to several challenges.

“I know many people who invested huge amounts of money in both wet- and dry-season farming but could not recover half of what they invested. That has discouraged people from engaging in farming activities,” he said.

He added that the situation was particularly difficult for food crop farmers because grain prices remained low compared with those of cash crops such as soybeans, sesame seeds and melon seeds.

Andami said many farmers had shifted to cash crop production, particularly soybeans, which sold for N80,000 per 100kg bag. He added that melon seeds and sesame seeds sold for between N90,000 and N150,000 in Taraba markets.

He warned that the shift towards cash crops could reduce the availability of food crops and worsen food insecurity.

Nuhu Kabir, a dry-season farmer, said irrigation farming declined last year due to poor returns on investment.

“Last irrigation season, I invested over N3 million to produce paddy rice, but after harvesting and selling the produce, what I realised was less than the amount I invested. This has taught me to be careful about making huge investments in irrigation farming,” he said.

Mechanisation, insecurity worsen farmers’ plight

The Chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria in Edo State, Mr Tony Aliu, said farmers lacked adequate access to tractors and other mechanised farming equipment, forcing many to rely on manual labour to prepare their farmlands.

He explained that the situation had limited the number of hectares farmers could cultivate, thereby reducing their productivity.

Aliu urged the government to open up more land and make it available to farmers at affordable rates to enable them to expand production. He identified the high cost of hiring land from communities as another major challenge.

He also described insecurity as a serious threat to farming, saying kidnappings had prevented many farmers from accessing their farms and harvesting their produce.

Aliu said price fluctuations and inadequate market access had further worsened the situation, blaming the influx of imported rice for the decline in the prices of locally produced rice.

He also identified inadequate irrigation facilities as a major constraint to rice production, particularly amid changing weather patterns.

“Last year, many farmers lost their produce due to weather changes. Because we don’t have irrigation in this part of the country, we were seriously affected. I lost several hectares due to this development,” he said.

An economist, Alhaji Ibraheem Maigari, urged the government to address the major factors driving up food prices, including the high cost of fertilisers, energy, transportation and other agricultural inputs.

He said reducing these costs would enable farmers to operate profitably while making food more affordable for consumers.

Maigari said increasing domestic food production was a viable way to address rising prices, urging the government to invest in irrigation systems, rural road networks, storage facilities, affordable credit and improved security for farmers.

Food prices dropped by 50%- FG

The Federal Government said prices of essential food commodities have dropped by as much as 50 per cent nationwide following its interventions to boost agricultural production and food security.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said the government had distributed more than 10 million bags of fertiliser under its agricultural support programmes, alongside a Guaranteed Price Model targeting two million smallholder farmers.

He added that an additional 1.9 million bags of fertiliser had been distributed to more than one million farmers.

Kyari said other interventions included the distribution of more than 500,000 bags of free fertiliser to over 120,000 farmers across 25 states and the Federal Capital Territory by the National Agricultural Development Fund.

He said the fund had also disbursed more than N16 billion across agricultural value chains through its on-lending product while promoting blended finance initiatives to attract investment into the sector.

The minister said the government had also established Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs), which are designed to bring infrastructure closer to farming communities and enable farmers to process raw produce into packaged goods.

Kyari said the interventions were already yielding results, with essential food commodities recording price reductions of up to 50 per cent nationwide.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, said the government had introduced several initiatives to improve livestock production and make animal protein more affordable and accessible to Nigerians.

He identified key areas of intervention as improving the genetic quality of local breeds, increasing feed and fodder supplies, developing vaccines to control animal diseases, supporting farmers and investing in meat processing facilities and abattoirs across the country.

Maiha said the ministry was working with key partners to strengthen the animal feed sector, which he described as critical to the development of the livestock industry.

He said the initiative was aimed at encouraging investment in feed production facilities, slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, packaging facilities, logistics and marketing.