The Federal Government has revealed fresh plans to sustain the recent drop in food prices across Nigeria, focusing on cheaper agricultural inputs and improved community-based storage facilities.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said the government’s new strategies are designed to ensure the current downward trend in food prices continues in the coming months.
Speaking after a Senate public hearing in Abuja organized by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Kyari expressed satisfaction with the decline in food prices but emphasized that the government was now shifting attention to the high cost of farm inputs. “I’m happy with the crash of food prices, but it is the inputs that we’re working on fertilizers, irrigation, fuel, and other essentials,” he said.
The minister explained that the government is implementing measures to make fertilisers, seeds, and other key inputs more accessible to farmers at affordable rates. He added that the intervention would extend beyond staple foods to other crops. “When we talk about fertilizer and inputs, it won’t be only for staple food; it’s for everybody onions, tomatoes, peppers, and other agricultural crops,” Kyari stated.
To address post-harvest losses, the minister disclosed that the government will introduce new community-level storage systems aimed at reducing food waste and stabilizing market supply. “We have already made a legacy project on post-harvest losses, which includes storage at the community level, not the silos that are situated in urban areas,” he explained. According to him, about 85 percent of the planned storage capacity will now be located within farming communities.
Kyari also noted that the government’s interventions are supported by funding from the New Growth Infrastructure Fund and the National Agriculture Development Fund, which are focused on strengthening the agricultural value chain and improving food system resilience. He assured Nigerians that the federal government is committed to maintaining a steady decline in prices through consistent policy action and investment.
While acknowledging that prices have started to fall since late 2024, Kyari maintained that the administration is determined to achieve greater price stability by 2026. “This year, we’ve seen that prices have gone down, but we are not where we want to be yet. We are still on the trajectory toward even lower food prices,” he said.
