Put aside wide fields brimming with yams. Once considered a veritable rice and cassava overload, Nigeria’s food basket today has an unpleasant reputation. For example, Jamiu Ibrahim revealed to BusinessDay that, in his capacity as a farmer, he is typically flanked by armed security guards rather than his farm equipment and labourers.
This is the new reality for Nigerian agriculture – a world where danger lurks and security is a backbreaking expense, costing N300,000 a month, spiking even higher during harvest. The stark truth? For the farmers of Nigeria, security is an absolute necessity rather than a luxury.
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And guess who ultimately shoulders this hidden tax? It lands squarely on your dinner plate. That seemingly innocuous bag of rice you buy for N80,000 might secretly harbour a N5,000 security surcharge – a hidden cost built into every transaction. This is the grim reality for Nigerian agriculture, a sector now under siege by bandits, kidnappers, and terrorists. The cost of farming has morphed from seeds and fertilizer to armed guards and ransoms, a chilling transformation that threatens not just food security, but the very affordability of putting a meal on the table for everyday Nigerians.
As earlier reported by BusinessDay, farmers across the country are forced to become self-made fortresses, spending a staggering N200,000 to N1 million on private security every month. This cost is a cruel choice between protection and extortion. Some, unable to afford guards, face ransoms as high as N800,000, a price tag on the very act of harvesting their crops.
“The cost of farming has morphed from seeds and fertilizer to armed guards and ransoms, a chilling transformation that threatens not just food security, but the very affordability of putting a meal on the table for everyday Nigerians.”
The repercussions are dire. Faced with such an untenable situation, many farmers are abandoning their fields altogether. Food production plummets, storage woes exacerbate the problem, and as a consequence, prices soar. A staggering 60% of food production in key states has vanished, a casualty of this insecurity.
The crisis doesn’t stop there. Kabiru Ibrahim, head of the All Farmers Association, paints a picture of an agricultural sector crippled by a lack of basic infrastructure. Imagine motorable roads and proper storage facilities – a dream for many farmers. Without them, production costs inflate, further burdening consumers with skyrocketing food prices.
The situation is beyond alarming. A recent report exposes the brutality farmers face – N139.5 million paid to bandits in just four years, on top of outrageous levies for access to their own land. This is organized extortion, a chokehold on food security and a death knell for struggling agrarian communities.
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The human cost is even more horrifying. Over 350 farmers were kidnapped in a single year, with more than half never returning home. This is not just a food crisis, it’s a humanitarian one. The high cost of security on farms becomes a tax on the entire nation, fueling a cost-of-living crisis in Africa’s most populous nation.
But there is hope. Long-term solutions are within reach. We need robust storage facilities to minimize post-harvest losses, efficient transportation networks to get food where it needs to go, and a laser focus on the entire agricultural value chain.
The farmer-herder clashes are another festering wound. Benue State alone witnessed hundreds of deaths in a year – a stark reminder of the urgency to find a lasting solution.
Nigeria’s infrastructure gap yawns wide, demanding a $3 trillion investment. Yes, the government has announced a temporary import window for food, but that’s a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.
True security means protecting our food basket. It means investing in infrastructure – building motorable roads and adequate storage facilities to minimize waste and streamline distribution. It necessitates bolstering security – providing effective protection for farmers and deterring criminal activity.
Additionally, embracing technology-driven agriculture, through initiatives like precision farming and improved irrigation, can increase yields and empower farmers. Only through this multifaceted approach can we tame food prices and ensure a future where every Nigerian has a full plate.
The time for action is now. Let’s invest in our farmers, for they are the backbone of our nation and the very foundation of food security. By securing their future, we secure the well-being of all Nigerians.
