Stakeholders advocate market access solutions to reduce Nigeria’s agricultural waste

Stakeholders in Nigeria's agricultural sector are calling for a shift in strategy to combat the nation's significant agricultural waste, estimated at N3.7 trillion. They argue that the focus should move from traditional storage interventions to solving market access barriers. Rahmah Aderinoye, CEO of Rashak Farms and Agro-Allied Limited, believes Nigeria's food security crisis cannot be resolved by merely improving storage for smallholders if clear channels to sell their produce do not exist.

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Nigeria has a market access problem that is disguised as a post-harvest losses problem. If we tackle the issue of market access, this post-harvest loss of a thing that we’re discussing will be something of the past.

Aderinoye emphasized that Nigeria faces a market access problem disguised as a post-harvest loss issue. She proposed integrating off-taker agreements at the beginning of the farming season, providing farmers with certainty regarding product purchase, price, specifications, and quantity. This approach, she suggests, would significantly reduce waste. Aderinoye also stressed the need for consistent government policies, citing recent farmer experiences as "calamity" due to policy shifts.

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Can you imagine if as you are giving a farmer input at the beginning of the season, you’re also handing over to the farmer an off-taker agreement, saying whatever it is that you cultivate, I’ll take it off. And they have an idea of what the price is, they have an idea of the specification that you need, they have an idea of the quantity that you need.

Speaking on Channels TV's Sunrise Daily, stakeholders, including Azeez Salawu, Executive Director of Community Action for Food Security, highlighted the systemic blockages driving agricultural waste. Salawu pointed out that tracking losses at the sub-national level is crucial. He urged state governments to move beyond political considerations and deliberately integrate data collection into their agricultural ministries. Both stakeholders agreed that while preserving produce is important, the core issue lies in the lack of reliable market access and stable government policies.

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We want good government policy, consistent government policy. For example, I was just with some of our farmers in Kano yesterday, and the word majority of them use for what happened to them in the last planting season was calamity, and that’s as a result of a single government policy.