Annual N3.5trn post-harvest loss swallows five-year agric budget

Nigeria’s annual post-harvest loss of N3.5 trillion surpasses its combined five-year federal budget for agriculture, BusinessDay has found.

Estimates show that the value of post-harvest loss in Africa’s most populous nation is three times higher than the country’s five-year federal agricultural budgetary allocation of N1.13 trillion, sparking criticisms on the government’s food security policies.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, post-harvest loss ranges between five and 20 percent for grains; 20 percent for fish, and between 50 and 60 percent for tubers, fruits, and vegetables, according to experts.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) says about 50 percent of fresh agricultural produce in Nigeria is lost at the post-harvest level.

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“Reducing post-harvest losses will help Nigeria increase its food supply without necessarily increasing its production,” AfricanFarmer Mogaji, former head of agribusiness, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“We are experiencing a worsening food crisis with surging hunger levels, and tackling our huge post-harvest losses is critical in addressing these issues,” Mogaji, who is the chief executive officer of X-ray Consulting Limited, explained.

He noted that despite the Federal Government unveiling immediate, short- and long-term plans to boost food supply, provision of critical infrastructure to tackle post-harvest losses and food waste is lacking.

“No one is looking at addressing the challenges of transportation and storage, which render most agricultural produce useless,” he noted.

Critical infrastructures such as motorable rural roads and storage facilities, among others, are still absent in Nigeria’s food supply chain, fueling huge post-harvest losses, reducing farmers’ profit, leading to high production costs and negatively impacting output.

Nigeria needs to spend $3 trillion for 30 years to bridge the infrastructure gap, according to Agusto and Co, a credit ratings agency.

“If we’re able to tackle the high volume of food losses, naturally it would have positive implications for bringing down prices and increasing supply,” said Ololade Enikuomehin, a professor of plant pathology at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

According to him, the Federal Government must support farmers through the provision of critical infrastructures that help to reduce the country’s alarming rate of post-harvest losses.

“In other climes where post-harvest losses have been reduced, there have been a lot of government interventions through their policy and provisions where farmers don’t have to bother about how to preserve their produce by themselves,” the professor said.

“So, the government policy must enhance making infrastructure available for farmers. The government policy must change to emphasise agriculture in such a way that access to infrastructure reduces post-harvest losses.”

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Nigeria is populated with over 200 million people who must be fed with staples ranging from rice and beans to tomatoes and maize.

Yet, there is still a demand-supply gap in most of the staple foods, even as the population growth rate stands at 2.6 percent per annum.

The World Population Prospects 2017 projected Nigeria’s population to surpass the 300 million mark by 2050.

Nigeria’s widening food deficit was highlighted in the Agriculture Promotion Policy (2016 – 2020) document of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture which shows there are 20.14 million tonnes of crop deficit and 60 million poultry birds’ deficit.

“Currently, we do not grow enough because farmers are still using old techniques, coupled with rising insecurity,” Abiodun Olorundenro, operations manager, Aquashoots Limited.

“If we continue to lose many of the crops already harvested, then our food deficit will continue to increase tremendously,” Olorundenro said.

“Our population is growing very fast and we are yet to increase our productivity. This is even making the few available foods more expensive for consumers,” he added.