Nigeria’s food supply chain is troubled by inefficiencies that experts say stifle productivity, increase post-harvest losses, and leave the country heavily reliant on imports.
Industry stakeholders are advocating for improved backward integration, stronger infrastructure, and better policies to bridge the gap between the farm and the market.
Victoria Uwadoka, the corporate communications public affairs and sustainability lead at Nestlé Nigeria spoke on the importance of a well-structured food value chain at the BusinessDay Future of Agriculture Conference in Lagos on Thursday.
“Agriculture is a whole value chain, from farm to market. Therefore, for local sourcing to be successful, there needs to be a clear end game,” she stated.
This resonated with Atinuke Lebile, co-founder of Cato Foods, who stressed that food security is not only about increasing production but also about fixing the entire supply chain with a “Food on the table, money in the pocket” mindset.
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For Adelaja Adeshina, a managing consultant at Bdellium Consult, agriculture should be treated as a business.
“We must first understand the industry’s value chain and what each level requires. Farmers are not doing this for fun; they want to run a business. If we recognise the financial opportunities at every step, we can achieve food security.”
Approximately 35 percent of agricultural produce is lost post-harvest due to inadequate storage and processing, a crisis that experts believe can be tackled by prioritising processing over raw storage.
Lebile cited corn as an example, explaining that processing it into pap powder extends its shelf life. “We work with aggregators who take the produce from farmers and store what they need. If we scale up processing, we can minimise waste and improve food availability,” she said.
Sheriff Balogun, national president of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), noted that challenges begin at the production stage. “The most important part is production,” he said, referring to poor seed quality, inadequate infrastructure, and high input costs as major barriers.
“We see smallholder farmers struggling with yields because they lack access to better seeds. A farmer with 3,000 plants on one hectare can barely feed those around him, let alone the entire country,” he remarked. With 32 million smallholder farmers still relying on outdated methods, Nigeria’s agricultural productivity remains critically low.
This has had its repercussions. Nigeria’s dependence on food imports has increased over the years due to inadequate local production. Billions of dollars are spent annually on food importation, placing a strain on the nation’s foreign exchange reserves.
Uwadoka insists that with the right infrastructure and a commitment to adhering to existing policies, the country can turn the tide. “We have strong policies; we just need to strictly implement them and build functioning infrastructure that encourages local sourcing and backward integration.”
Experts are certain Nigeria should prioritise food security as it does national defense.
Deji Rotimi, chief executive of HH Holding, argued that food security should not be treated as business as usual but as a matter of national urgency. Uwadoka felt similarly, calling for a state of food emergency with the same coordinated effort seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“While it’s important to have a defense budget, we must also have a robust agriculture budget,” Balogun added, warning that without proper funding, farmers will remain under-equipped, and Nigeria will continue to rely on imports.
However, some see potential for innovation in addressing post-harvest losses.
Adeshina noted that while these losses remain a challenge, they also present opportunities for agripreneurs willing to invest in solutions.
Atinuke added that collaboration between private and public stakeholders, improved farming practices, and organising farmers into cooperative clusters would facilitate access to incentives, boost productivity, and enhance food security in Nigeria.
