Quality seeds, effective policies can bridge Nigeria’s food production gaps

Access to adequate, secured and timely supply of quality seeds is a major hurdle on the nation’s way to achieving food self-sufficiency that demands urgent attention, if the country is to diversify its economy through agriculture, experts said.

For Nigeria to bridge its food production gaps, smallholder farmers must have access to quality seeds alongside effective policies and standard pricing, Ayodeji Balogun, group chief executive officer, AFEX, have said.

In his keynote address at the BusinessDay’s Future of Agriculture Conference on Wednesday, Balogun noted that despite the country is blessed with arable land, smallholder farmers do not have access to quality seeds and seedlings.

This according to him, has made the country’s yield per hectare persistently low when compared to its African peers in addition to other bottlenecks that has continued to limit productivity.

“We have production deficit in most of our food production from grains to cereals and poultry,” he said.

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He explained that with access to quality inputs such as seeds, adequate infrastructure such as irrigation and logistics farmers can bridge the production shortfall.

“Agriculture is the greatest employer of labour in Nigeria, employing about 36 percent of the country’s population,” he said.

“If you put that into perspective, looking at every other sector, from telecoms to banking to trade to manufacturing to oil and gas, it gives a spectrum of how significant it is for us as a country and our survival,” he added.

According to him, the solutions to challenges limiting farm productivity is dependent on effective policies. Citing the waiver policy as an example, Balogun noted that farmers struggled with low demand and increasing input costs which led to financial losses.

“The government’s import policy supported price reduction because it covered the shortage we had immediately, however it cannot explain the reason why prices are still low after 18 months. Government only imported 500,000 in 2024 and has only sold 40 percent of it to stabilize the market. We consume over 30 million MT of grains and cereals every year.

The bigger problem we have is the weakening of purchasing power than has led to lower demand from the industrial users of grains, hence the low prices.

However, Balogun called on the government to address the country’s surging input costs, noting that a partnership with the right government agencies could develop a national seed policy that ensures production, certification, and distribution of high-quality seeds.

For pricing, Balogun called for the development of a robust Commodity Exchange Policy to standardise grades and pricing, improve transparency, and reduce market inefficiencies.

“Enhance transparent price discovery to establish fair pricing and improve market efficiency,” he said.

Frank Aigbogun, publisher of BusinessDay, represented by Lolade Akinmurele, the Editor, affirmed during his address that “coordinated systems, aligned incentives and sustained collaboration,” will determine the future of agriculture in Nigeria.

Feyishola Jaiyesimi

Feyishola Jaiyesimi is a journalist at BusinessDay Media with over two years reporting experience. She began her journalism career as an agricultural reporter and now covers the energy sector, including oil, gas, electricity, environment, and renewables. She has been selected for professional training by the US Consulate, Lagos. She is a 2025 Dataphyte Biodiversity Reporting Fellow. Feyishola holds a bachelor’s degree in Zoology and Environmental Biology from Ekiti State University.