CPPE warns of looming crisis as food price slump hurts Nigerian farmers

•Says cheaper meals shouldn’t have costlier consequences

By Uche Usim

Nigeria’s recent food security strategy is delivering relief at homes but pain on the farm, triggering a fresh policy debate over how to balance affordable food with the survival of local agriculture. While consumers have welcomed falling food prices and easing food inflation, farmers and investors across the agricultural value chain are grappling with heavy losses caused by sharp commodity price collapses.

In a new policy brief, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) warns that the current approach, if left unchecked, could undermine farmer livelihoods, discourage investment and ultimately weaken Nigeria’s long-term food security.

According to CPPE, the challenge is not whether cheaper food is desirable, it is, but whether the gains can be sustained without destroying incentives to produce.

The think tank argues that Nigeria faces a clear policy dilemma: how to keep food affordable while protecting farmer incomes and preserving confidence in agriculture, one of the country’s largest employers and most strategic economic sectors.

CPPE insists that Nigeria cannot afford a food policy regime that delivers short-term consumer relief at the cost of long-term production collapse.

At the heart of the problem, CPPE notes, is the surge in food imports, particularly rice, maize and soybeans, introduced as an emergency response to soaring prices. While imports have helped moderate prices, they have also flooded markets, triggering severe price crashes at harvest time. The result is falling farmer incomes, distress sales, weakened production incentives and the risk of future scarcity once domestic supply contracts.

Beyond imports, CPPE identifies deeper structural weaknesses that CPPE warns of looming crisis as food price slump hurts Nigerian farmers

worsen price instability every year. These include harvest gluts as farmers produce the same crops simultaneously, inadequate storage and cold-chain facilities that force immediate sales, poor rural logistics, insecurity and high transport costs. Limited processing capacity also means surplus produce cannot be absorbed, pushing prices down sharply after harvest only to spike months later when supplies dry up.

To break this cycle, CPPE calls for the urgent establishment of a rules-based, market-friendly Farm Price Stabilisation and Farmer Income Protection Framework. Such a framework, it says, should prevent import-induced price crashes, reduce harvest-time collapses, protect farmer livelihoods and provide stable supply conditions for processors and consumers.

A central pillar of the proposal is the introduction of Minimum Guaranteed Prices (MGP) for selected strategic crops, starting with maize, rice (paddy), sorghum and soybeans. CPPE stresses that MGP should serve strictly as a stabilising backstop, not an open-ended government buying programme, and must be anchored on transparent cost-based pricing.

The group also urges sweeping reforms of Nigeria’s Strategic Grain Reserves, converting them into a modern buffer stock system that buys during price collapses and releases stocks during lean seasons to stabilise markets. In parallel, CPPE advocates nationwide expansion of the Warehouse Receipt System to help farmers avoid distress sales by using stored produce as collateral for credit.

Other recommendations include structured institutional procurement for programmes such as school feeding and emergency relief, massive investment in storage, agro-logistics and cold chains through public-private partnerships, and accelerated development of processing clusters near production zones. CPPE further calls for stronger agricultural insurance, predictable trade safeguards against import surges, better market information systems and deliberate efforts to reduce the cost of farm inputs and financing.

In conclusion, CPPE warns that without stabilising farmer incomes, Nigeria’s food security gains will prove fragile. A balanced, rules-based framework, it argues, will protect farmers, sustain investment, stabilise prices and strengthen the country’s economic resilience.