The negative impact of market forces must also be addressed through an intentional drive for market regulation by enhancing market competition, monitoring prices while preventing hoarding and price manipulation.
Nigeria currently faces a daunting challenge in ensuring food security for its growing population of over 200 million people, which has worsened with an overwhelming percentage food cost increase in recent months, exacerbating poverty and hunger with a heart-breaking index. This menace is highly worrisome and has drawn the attention of many stakeholders both nationally and in the diaspora. Despite the seemingly agricultural policies in force and budgetary allocations for the sector, the nation’s drive for zero hunger and poverty eradication in actualization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is becoming more of a mirage than a possible future reality. Surprisingly, the statistical figures that presented the depth of the nation’s food insecurity quagmire have also continued to increase from year to year, instead of assuming a downward statistical trend, leaving many questions begging for answers.
About 40.7% of Nigeria’s teeming population has been estimated by the World Bank to live below the international poverty line by the end of 2024, and this statistical narrative poses the need for implementation of effective food cost reduction policies with more pressing urgency than ever. Food prices have been rising steadily over the past decade, with a significant increase in recent years while the country’s inflation rate has consistently exceeded the Central Bank’s target range, with food inflation being a major driver of this abnormal shift. The prices of staples like rice, beans, and maize, amongst others, have more than doubled, making it difficult for low-income households to afford basic meals. Truth be told, there is a chronic epidemic of hunger across the states of the federation and Nigerians are tired of fighting the hunger monster on a daily basis without a clear assurance of light at the end of the tunnel.
As a matter of fact, the nation’s food system is currently characterized by low agricultural productivity, inefficient supply chains, high post-harvest losses, over-dependence on imported foods, limited access to credit and markets for smallholder farmers, to mention but a few, which are fundamental root cause of high food prices in the country with far-reaching consequences such as increased poverty and hunger, reduced purchasing power for low-income households, decreased nutrition and health standards, increased reliance on imported foods, worsening trade deficits, reduced economic growth and development amongst others.
To address this high food costs ravaging the country, the government must implement policies that stem the tide of food inflation. There is an urgent need for agricultural sector reforms, with focus on improving productivity and efficiency in farming practices, enhancing irrigation systems and promoting mechanization, while supporting research and development of climate-resilient crop varieties.
Also, we must explore the potential of trade policies, by encouraging local food production, reducing reliance on imports, and implementing tariffs to protect domestic farmers. As a nation, we must also be deliberate about improving on food storage and preservation mechanisms through investment in modern storage facilities, promoting innovative preservation techniques and reducing post-harvest losses as much as possible. Of course, we should also be more strategic in the implementation of social protection programs such as implementing targeted subsidies and cash transfers to support vulnerable livelihoods. The negative impact of market forces must also be addressed through an intentional drive for market regulation by enhancing market competition, monitoring prices while preventing hoarding and price manipulation.
It is important to note that Nigeria has implemented several initiatives to address food insecurity and high food prices, especially the Anchor Borrowers’ Program that provided credit to smallholder farmers, resulting in increased productivity and output, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda that focused on improving agricultural productivity and efficiency, as well as the National Social Investment Program that targeted social protection programs for vulnerable households. Despite these efforts, the challenge of food insecurity and high food prices persist because these lofty intervention programs were confronted with limited funding and resources, inefficient implementation and monitoring, corruption and mismanagement, limited access to credit and markets for smallholder farmers amongst others.
To me, these limitations can be addressed to set the nation on a food secure and prosperous path, if we can consider a result-oriented national review of the agricultural sector and expedite more intentional actions towards increasing investment in agricultural research and development, improving access to credit and markets for smallholder farmers, enhancing transparency and accountability in policy implementation, promoting public-private partnerships in agriculture and supporting innovative solutions and technologies in food production and preservation. If these actions are implemented on time, with a collective and patriotic mindset by all players in the sector, Nigeria can rise to become a model for food cost reduction in Africa.
Matthew Adebisi is a solution-based writer from Lagos, Nigeria: [email protected]