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By Chinyere Anyanwu and Okwe Obi, Abuja
Farmers across Nigeria are bracing for a harsh 2026 farming season and attendant massive financial losses as the federal government’s 2024 food import waiver initiative 2024 takes a toll on them.
Many of them are contemplating abandoning farming for other ventures as the waiver is crashing local produce prices, wiping off profits and making it hard for them to sustain their farms.
Many of them lamented that they are finding it difficult selling their foodstuffs and offsetting loans and paying for labour to enable them to prepare for the next year’s farming season.
Already, prices of foodstuffs have crashed, with the government taking responsibility for the situation.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, boasted that the recent declines recorded in the prices of key food commodities across the country were the result of targeted market interventions, increased production and sustainable investment in the agricultural ecosystem.
Kyari, during the 47th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Food Security in Kaduna State, said that the ongoing reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s administration were driven by the commitment to achieve food sovereignty and ensure that Nigeria would produce what it consumes, while guaranteeing accessibility, availability and affordability for households.
“As we continue along this path, we are already beginning to witness a decline in food prices across several commodities, a reflection of ongoing targeted market interventions. While we are not yet where we want to be, this positive trend confirms that we are moving in the right direction.”
But farmers have lamented those fancy words of assurances are not enough to soothe their pains and losses as they are currently on ventilators.
A maize farmer, Adesola Yinka, while picking holes in the Minister’s explanation, described the government’s intervention as cosmetic and short-lived.
According to Yinka, farmers would find it extremely difficult to repay their loans because of the import waiver.
“Right now, farm produce is so bad because the government chose to lift the tariff ban and import everything because they want to claim that they are working and they want food to go down.
“Farmers will have to bear the brunt. So, if you spend N10 million on the farm this year, you are not going to make N2 million back. You are not going to recover your N10 million, not to talk of getting interest on the money. It is as bad as that on the farm right now.
“This morning, I was telling some of my co-farmers that a lot of people will not farm next year. It is not because they do not want to farm or plant, but because of the money they will use.
“Already they are down. They did not make the profits. Imagine a bag of corn we were selling for N80,000 and we even bought expensive chemicals and pesticides.
“In fact, we were buying expensive motorcycles and the prices did not reduce, and you are getting to sell for N25,000 per 100kg bag of maize. A three-ton cassava pick-up vehicle, a farmer will get N15,000.”
She claimed that in the next election cycle, the government would not have time to invest in agriculture but would focus on securing reelection, saying that would give bandits the leeway to carry out their atrocities, except with the intervention of the United States government.
In addition, she predicted that the government would lift the tariff ban after the election season, believing that they have done their best.
She said: “I am not lamenting this morning. But I am telling you that if you are able to plant next year, know that they will be campaigning next year and money will flow. That is if Donald Trump has not come to help us send the bandits away, because they will be killing us and money will be flowing. But the money that will flow will not be enough for us to farm.
“In 2027, all these tariffs they lifted, they will lock them because they will be killing us and money will be flowing, but the money will not be enough. The people that have alternatives will leave the farm. Even those without alternatives will not plant much; they will just plant a small quantity.
“Then the ones that they are importing, they will not import again because they are spending so much. They are already complaining about the tariff.
“In 2028, we will suffer for it. That is when we will know that we have lost a lot of jobs. Many people will be rendered homeless and farmers will not come because this year a lot of farmers have sent away their farm workers without pay.
“Where is the money to pay? The harvest is there. Even if you sell your 200 bags of maize, you still cannot pay one farm worker. That is the level we are at in the rural areas right now.”
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Another farmer, Busari Ahmed, challenged farmers against farming, claiming that when the government gave grants to farmers, most of them did not farm.
Ahmed claimed that even those who cultivated crops hoarded the produce to hurt the economy.
“They should not farm. When they gave grants to farmers and closed the borders, farmers planted and hoarded the produce. Some, especially in the North, took the produce to neighbouring countries like the fuel during the subsidy era.
“I follow a popular farmer on Twitter who used to drag the government when prices were up and he was smiling to the bank. He also got grants from the same government. Immediately prices crashed, he started lamenting.”
Another farmer, Bayo Bamgbose, tasked farmers to put heads together to weather the storm.
“Farmers have to put heads together and work together to reduce the cost of farming. Product conversion is essential in the sector. Transforming farm produce into consumable products and storable products is essential.
“For instance, let us know how many products we can get from cassava. Then we pull resources to transform cassava into them,” he suggested.
The National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Ibrahim Kabir, agreed with Yinka that the intentions of the government to crash the prices of foodstuffs would affect the market system.
Kabir said: “Farmers are complaining that this import has led to the reduction of food prices, which has affected local production. Farmers are saying that the intention of the government was to make food more affordable to Nigerians.
“I do not necessarily share the sentiment of some farmers who are saying that this import will definitely affect farmers next year because since they did not make much money this year in selling their crops, next year they will not be willing to go into farming.
“If crops that are produced are not getting the ban, then the farmers think they will never be encouraged to produce those same crops the following year. This is something that is as old as agriculture itself.
“So, the thing to do is, since the government made an effort to bring down the cost of food items or to bring down food inflation, it should do the same thing to the price of imports.
“If supplies and other imports also come down, then the cost of production will be lower, and the farmers will not complain that prices are low because their cost of production is also low.
“So, the issues have to be tackled carefully. And then they need also to shore up the purchasing power of our currency, the Naira.
“That is the major problem. Because even at the prices you are talking about that the farmers are complaining about, not many people can even afford food now.
“I do not know what your pay package is, but even at this low price, are you able to allow your children to play football with bread in the house?”
He added that with the initiative of the government, “If sufficient care is not taken, there will be difficulties on the part of farmers. Because there is a great expansion in the market.”
According to him, “Food inflation could rise. But the government is already taking measures, even though we are asking for more, like Oliver Twist, to give more subsidy on inputs. Recently, as early as yesterday, the Minister of Agriculture launched the dry seeding wheat programme.
“And all the inputs that the farmers are going to get, they are going to pay less than 25%. There is a subsidy of 25%.
“But I did an interview on NTA and asked for 50% instead of 25%. So, as time goes on, if the government reduces or puts more subsidies on these items, they will be easily affordable to the farmers and they will use it to produce optimally. So, you can stave off the timing or the inflation that you are talking about now.
“So, it is in the hands of the government to really continue to create a buffer for farmers to be able to produce optimally. Yes.
“No farmer in Nigeria is producing what he wants. So, even the farmers are happy with some low prices. But certainly, they need to get good prices for what they produce to be able to afford that which they do not produce.”
