Farmers, FG Disagree Over Drop In Food Prices

Farmers and the federal government have disagreed over the recent drop in prices of food items across the country.

Many of the farmers and their associations, who spoke to Daily Trust, cited what they described as massive importation of food items recently approved by the government as the cause of the price crash.

But the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, attributed the development to the various incentives introduced by the present administration to boost local production.

This is just as farmers have also expressed worries over the soaring cost of agricultural inputs which, according to them, is making food production increasingly difficult.

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Farmers, FG disagree over drop in food prices
They told Daily Trust that they had held on to old stock, hoping to sell at higher prices to cushion earlier losses.

The government had, in September 2024, opened a 150-day duty-free window for the import of essential grains such as rice, maize, sorghum and wheat.

The July–December 2024 waiver was aimed at reducing the prices of essential food to provide relief to millions of Nigerians struggling with high living costs.

However, the import, which continued until January 2025, forced the prices of major grains, including wheat, millet, sorghum rice and maize, to plummet below production cost.

As a result of this, a large number of farmers who made significant financial investments in the production of grains are still losing money, and some of them are still trapped with old stock.

However, the minister, Abdullahi, said the government had yet to release the food items it imported. Answering questions from journalists during the World Food Day celebrations in Abuja, he said the government was aware of the impact of the drop in food prices and that it was working to mitigate it.

“We are fully aware of some of these dynamics, but let me make it very clear that, of course, we are looking at food security for our citizens, that is the overall interest of government. And if food is available, accessible, but not affordable, whoever is involved in the non-affordability will tell you it’s not food secure. Yet, we want an economy and a country where everybody is inclusively included in whatever we are doing.

“No one is left behind. So, what the government is doing is, ever since we came on board, we did not hide our intention to see that the prices of food come down to a level that is affordable.

“Now, what has happened is that from 2023, we went into massive production through the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro-Pocket Programme. We injected a large volume, almost more than 500,000 metric tons of wheat, including maize, cassava, and all the other commodities that we promoted.

“This year, we also have a marginal increase, which means we are ramping up production. Now, the volume of food that is produced is responsible for the drop in prices,” he explained.

forcing some of them to shut down operations.

Daily Trust gathered that farmers are now left to rely solely on garri processors, who give reduced rates that are less than the cost of production, since industrial processors no longer purchase cassava from farmers.

Kehinde Lawrence, the programme manager of the Industrial Cassava Stakeholders’ Association of Nigeria (ICSAN), had earlier told the Daily Trust during a telephone interview that the processors and the farmers were in a distressed situation.

He said the association was concerned that a lot of people had gone into cassava production, and that the output of the harvest, which is taken primarily by industrial processors, suffered a setback because these are the people who have the capacity to process.

In Idah, Kogi State, Ben Ameh had cultivated 40 acres of cassava but was unable to sell because the prices per ton crashed from N170,000 to N45,000.

“Even at that price, you will still have to pay transport. So, the whole thing is better imagined. I put more than N16 million in that farm but when we harvested, we could not even realize N10 million. It was a sad experience for me. That was the first time I tried cassava in such large quantity and everything collapsed,” he said.

Malam Hassan Yusuf, who farmed sesame said he invested about N 3 million into the venture but that he could only realize about N700,000 due to drop in the cost of the produce, He said he is discouraged by the development and that he will not cultivate it next year.

Current cost of production per hectare

Alhaji Faruk Rabi’u, a farmer in Kano, said the overall cost of cultivating one hectare of maize or rice has now gone up to almost N2 million, compared to the initial cultivation cost of N600,000 obtainable in previous years.

A director in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, who prefers not to be mentioned, said the cost of producing most grains in some areas was about N650,000 per hectare at the beginning of the season but it had increased to over N1.2 million, a 100% increase by July.

At the beginning of this year’s rainy season, the retail prices for various fertilizers showed that NPK 20:10:10 was N49,000, NPK 15:15:15 was N52,000, urea was N36,500, granulated diammonium phosphate (DAP) was N70,000 per 50kg bag, while single super phosphate (SSP) was N39,500.

But in July, prices went up sharply, with DAP rising to N96,000, NPK 20:10:10, N60,000, and NPK 15:15:15 reaching N108,000 depending on the location.

Malam Bello Isah Lajawa, a farmer in Kano, said several rural markets in Bunkure, Kura, and Dawakin Tofa Local Government Areas, sold a 50kg bag of urea fertilizer between N50, 000 and N55,000, while NPK was sold at N55,000 and above as against the N22,000 sold in the previous farming season.

He further revealed that herbicides and pesticides had also witnessed sharp increases, with some brands selling at 80 per cent higher than last year’s prices.

The National President of the All Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc. Kabiru Ibrahim, had, in a recent chat with Daily Trust, warned that the country’s efforts to attain food security would be severely threatened by the high cost of fertiliser.

“Most of our Small Holder Farmers (SHFs) and a host of large-scale ones are groaning under the high cost of fertiliser, and this certainly portends a serious threat to the attainment of food security in Nigeria,” he stated.

In[b] most markets across the country, a 100 kg bag of maize currently costs N22,000, a bag of paddy costs N35,000, soy beans cost N45,000, sorghum N20,000, millet N35,000, and beans N65,000.
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However, there is minimal fluctuation in these pricing across different locations.

Haruna Saidu, a large scale farmer in Mutum Biyu, Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State, said he spent millions on his maize farm and that price has not gone up, therefore, he may not make any profit.

He accused the federal government of discouraging farmers from growing farm produce, adding that importation of grains like maize and the refusal to subsidise farm inputs is killing farming.

Another farmer, Lawal Mayoreniyo, in Ardo Kola Local Government Area, said farmers were gradually shifting from farming of food crops to cash crops because of crash in the price of grains.

More farmers speak

Salihu Ibrahim, a farmer in Lemu, Gbako LGA Niger State, said farming is no longer viable on its own unless they seek out other sources of income.

“We, farmers are already in a mess. On our last market day, a bag of maize was N20, 000 while a mudu went for N300. In some places, a bag of maize is N22, 000. And not only maize, prices of other farm produce have reduced drastically. We have lost our investments. But as I always say, farmers should no longer rely on farming because prices of what we produce are going down while prices of what we need to buy after selling our farm produce are not going down. You can see the gap and disparities.

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