Nigeria’s food storage gap adds to farmers woes

Sani Danladi, a tomato farmer in his mid-50s, stood quietly on his expansive farm, surveying rows of ripe tomatoes ready for harvest. The sight should have marked a moment of triumph after months of labour.

But the sense of accomplishment quickly gave way to worry. With weak demand, low prices and limited storage options, Danladi realised he could not keep his tomatoes fresh for more than two days without selling them off cheaply.

His experience mirrors that of millions of smallholder farmers who produce the bulk of Nigeria’s food but lack the facilities needed to preserve their harvests.

Farmers across various food value chains in Nigeria recorded bumper harvests in 2025 on the back of favourable weather conditions. This helped to ease food inflation to 11.08 percent in November 2025 and brought some relief to households.

Read also: Agric in 2025: Food supply improves but farmers record losses

However, a big challenge for farmers was their inability to sell their produce at a profitable price as the cost of production far exceeded farmgate prices.

Input costs almost doubled, fertiliser prices surged more than 41 percent, with the prices of seeds and seedlings skyrocketing. Prices of herbicides and pesticides increased by more than 20 percent.

“There is a time of plenty and a time of famine,” Abiodun Olorundero, managing partner of Prasinos Farms, said in an interview with BusinessDay.

Nigeria loses an average of N3.5 trillion annually to post-harvest losses. Agricultural experts have repeatedly pointed to insufficient storage systems as a key driver of this loss.

Olorundero emphasised that the lack of storage facilities is costing the country billions of naira and wasting crops that could otherwise be processed, packaged and exported.

“We have a storage challenge, so no matter how much excess we have, we do not know how to store it because we do not even have the capacity,” he said.

He explained that stronger collaboration with local government off-takers – who can buy commodities directly from farmers – would help ensure the produce is absorbed and losses are minimised.

“Some farmers still have mature cassava tubers in the ground because they do not know what to do with them after harvest,” he said, referring to a cassava glut that wiped out gains of farmers in 2025.

Occurring every three to four years, the cassava glut wiped out thousands of naira in potential income for farmers last year, as many processors preferred importing ethanol and starch rather than sourcing from local suppliers.

Read also: Food trade hits nearly N5trn under NAPM as farmers grapple with losses

This development left cassava farmers stranded with excess produce that eventually became wasted.

Nigeria has one of the highest post-harvest loss rates globally. About 40 percent of all food produced is wasted, which is equivalent to roughly 31 million tons annually, due to poor storage systems and weak processing infrastructure, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

A study by Vestance, an agricultural consultancy firm, revealed that in 2020 Nigeria produced 16.9 million tons of fruits and 24.3 million tons of vegetables. However, between 30 percent and 40 percent of this output was wasted due to a lack of cold-chain infrastructure.

Alexander Isong, president of the Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCAWA), said Nigeria must prioritise discussions around cold-chain development.

“If we want to ramp up food production, we need to begin to invest in cold-chain infrastructure,” Isong said. “We keep talking about increasing food production, but between 40 and 60 percent of our food is lost after harvest.”

Cold-chain infrastructure, he noted, must become a national priority. Refrigerated trucks, solar-powered storage centres, cold rooms at farm clusters and temperature-controlled warehouses could drastically reduce waste and help farmers earn more.

Nigeria’s core stock infrastructure is estimated at 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the International Trade Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The figure falls short of the international benchmark of 70 percent for middle-income countries set by the World Bank.

This infrastructure deficit not only exacerbates food insecurity, particularly in rural areas where the majority of Nigeria’s food is produced, but also severely impacts the livelihoods of countless farmers and the broader economy.

Read also: Nigeria must train farmers to boost farm yields, reduce food waste – Arzikin Noma MD

Farmers’ losses pile

Shakin Agbayewa, deputy chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Lagos chapter, said improved storage would significantly reduce the financial losses faced by farmers.

“When farmers do not have the means to store their commodities, they are forced to sell at cheaper prices, thereby running at a loss,” he said.

Africa’s most populous nation cannot achieve food security without functional storage facilities, Agbayewa added. “That is where it starts.”