Why food prices remain high despite increased production – Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has said food production has increased under the President Bola Tinubu administration, but gaps in processing and distribution continue to keep food prices high.

Kyari said the government had made considerable progress in food production, with farm-gate prices falling, but consumers were yet to fully benefit because of challenges between the point of production and the market.

The minister disclosed this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday while responding to concerns over the slow impact of the government’s agricultural reforms on food prices.

“Let’s go down memory lane and think about the figures in 2023 and 2024. When you look at those and compare them with what the reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration have done, we are on the right track,” Kyari said.

He said government data showed that while production costs at the farm gate had declined, agro-processing remained a challenge.

“However, even if you look at the NBS figures, you would see that agro-processing has not come down, but production has come down. Which means at the farm gate, prices have come down considerably.

“So, these are other gaps that need to be looked at. But we have tackled the production of food, and we have seen considerable success in that regard,” the minister said.

Kyari attributed Nigeria’s continued dependence on food imports to population growth, low agricultural productivity, limited access to land and the cost of farm inputs and production.

“Due to certain factors, we’ve not been able to catch up in terms of the growth of population. We are growing on average about 8 to 9 million people every year. 25 years ago, we were half of what we are today, and 25 years from now, we will be double what we are. Of course, there are other factors: access to land, and productivity is still at a very low stage.

“To catch up with that, I think it’s something that we need to look at—the issue of productivity, having good quality seeds. This is what we’ve been trying to do; we’ve been able to at least impact a lot of farmers to give them subsidized inputs and subsidized seeds,” he said.

Government targets processed food imports

The minister said the government was seeking to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on processed food imports through mechanisation, local processing and the Special Agro-Processing Zones.

“I’m sure by the time you see the harvest of the wet season harvest figures, you will see a considerable reduction in food imports. When you look at food imports, it’s actually processed food that is on the rise in terms of the figures that we see, but farm produce is still coming down.

“That’s exactly what the government is trying to do. If you recall the ban on the export of raw items like shea nuts, and so also we’re looking at other areas and crops that we can reduce so that we add value. Also, we have the SAPZ (Special Agro-Processing Zones) that will come on stream before the end of next year, all eight of them, and we are even going into the second phase, the first tranche of about 10 states. What that seeks to do is production, aggregation, storage, processing, and marketing. So that SAPZ is also another mechanism of government that would help to reduce our dependence on processed food.”

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Kyari also said improved security had enabled farmers to return to areas where they had previously been unable to cultivate their land.

“A lot of our farmlands that were hitherto not accessible in 2023 have now been accessed. In 2024, there was a massive bumper harvest, and in 2025, even more than 2024. We are waiting for the 2026 figures to come out. Which meant that there’s more access to farmland in areas that were under insecure conditions.

“So, there’s improvement in that regard. Obviously, government and the armed forces are doing a lot trying to liberate those farmlands that were hitherto under insecure areas,” the minister said.

Kyari said the 2026 agricultural production figures were expected between October and November.

“Usually after harvest. I believe the National Agricultural Extension Research Liaison Services—which is a collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and ABU, Zaria, located in Zaria—usually gives us figures at every end of the harvest of rain-fed agriculture. But we have also mandated them to give us figures at every cycle of harvest because we’re trying to encourage all-year-round farming.

“We are going to start doing that this year. So by October or November, we should be able to get those figures out, and also March for the first cycle of the dry season, and then June for the second cycle.”

2026 harvest

Kyari projected that the 2026 harvest would exceed the bumper harvest recorded in 2025, citing improved productivity, stabilised input prices and government interventions.

“Actually, much more than that of 2025. There are challenges in terms of input prices, but we’ve been able to—I mean, we all know that productivity has increased because even the loud noise is coming down; it’s no longer that issue that was there before in 2023 and 2024. Prices have come down and stabilized, and like I said, we’re trying to see how we can balance the welfare of the citizenry and that of the farmers. I know there was a lot of outcry last year, but the outcry in terms of inputs has quieted down.

“There were a lot of interventions from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Bank of Agriculture, and the National Agricultural Development Fund. The National Agricultural Development Fund issued out fertilizer at no cost to the farmer, while Bank of Agriculture has done a 50% subsidy.”

On mechanisation, Kyari said tractors supplied under the Nigerian Agricultural Mechanisation Policy had already been deployed to farms, with the government monitoring their performance.

“Yes, that’s right, farmer have access to the tractors. The tractors are on the field now, but of course, you won’t see a tractor now because it’s past land preparation. What we are tracking now is tractor performance. We want to see a tractor perform on at least 500 to 600 hectares per year.

“So even if you have a farm that is about 100 hectares, you must pass on those subsidies that you have to your neighbors so that a tractor is being tracked to do at least 500 to 600 hectares annually. That is productivity. So when we have 2,000 tractors, it means we’re looking at a million hectares easily for every year for land preparation,” he said.