Food Prices May Soar As Farmers Struggle With High Input Costs

Nigerian farmers are facing a tough time as the wet season begins, with skyrocketing prices of farm inputs threatening food production.

Farmers are calling on the government to intervene, urging them to provide subsidies for farm inputs, ensure mechanization, and promote local production of farm inputs.

The government’s support is crucial in reducing the financial burden on farmers and making food more affordable for Nigerians.

Reportedly, some farmers had pointed out that there is a need for government at all levels to drive food production with a solid political will and action to ensure farmers are incentivised and provided subsidies for farm inputs to boost food production.

Others called on the Federal Government to ensure mechanization becomes a reality in the agricultural sector, especially now that the cost of producing food is high and frustrating farmers.

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, EA Daniels Farm, Engr Daniel Ijeh, who is a vegetable farmer based in Sapele, Delta State, said land preparation had begun in most of the farms in the Niger Delta region, and that the cost for the land preparation is also on the high side and definitely will lead to high food prices as the funds are not from any government interventions but from the struggles of farmers, and added that the prices of farm inputs are also high.

He said: “The tomato seeds we were buying at N14,000 but we bought it at N34,000, and that would affect the prices of food.

“Farmers are already doing land preparation, also those that are doing veggies have started nurseries, so hoping to transplant by March.

“Even, we have done a lot, we hope to transplant around March 10th. Our land preparation is completed. Our land preparation is expensive, and we spent close to N30 million, and we are just starting now.

“Land preparation includes clearing, stone removal, mapping, use of tractor to harrow, ridge construction, drip paste, plastic mulching, and others, which are basically for vegetable crops cultivation.

“There will be bumper harvest in 2025 because there is no threat like in 2024, which had very hot weather, special fertilizers to support the plants to withstand stress, and others, so all of these threats are not as high in 2025.”

In another reaction, the Chief Farmer, Jerry Olanrewaju, an Abuja based farmer, said the cost of fertilizer has skyrocketed compared with the price in 2024.

Olanrewaju also said the high cost of agrochemicals would trigger high food prices as well if there is no intervention to ameliorate the plight of farmers, especially this wet season farming.

He said: “Last year, 2024, a bag of fertilizer was sold at N45,000, now, this year, it is N60,000, and It is going to affect production.

“Now, the cost of tractors and mechanization is also going to increase. Hopefully, this mechanization programme of President Bola Tinubu is going to work out, and if it works out very well to its actualization plan, I think it is going to also have an effect.

“But the cost of inputs like fertilizer, pesticide and agrochemicals are on the high side, if the government can come in and do a subsidy at this point in time for the fertilizer, even bringing that to at least even N30,000, it is going to reduce the cost of food.

“The issue is food prices will not come down sooner or later if the cost of inputs are too high. So, if the government cannot do something around it, it is definitely going to be higher. We are on a time bomb because when farmers cannot bear the cost again and their production is reduced it is going to have a ripple effect in the long term if the inputs are high, and Nigerians would be at the receiving end.”

Moreso, he counseled that the government should quickly intervene by ensuring mechanisation programme works, return to the Growth Enhancement Scheme led by former Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina under former President Goodluck Jonathan, revive moribund fertilizer blending companies, and ensure local production of farm inputs instead of importation.

The Chief Operating Officer, COO / Co-founder, Postagvest Solutions Ltd, Mayowa Ekundayo, a farmer based in Ekiti State said, “Generally speaking, prices of farm inputs are high, and that is because our imputes are imported including the seeds.

“Fertilizers, certain licenses and passes are obtained from the National Security Adviser, NSA, Department of State Security, DSS, to manufacture fertilizers. So, largely, almost everything we use is imported, which makes imputes expensive.

The implications of this high prices of inputs, the prices of food will go up in 2025. Food is still going to be expensive. A lot of food producers; farmers, are still dealing with the bulk of the issues we dealt with last year. They are still dealing with climate change, insecurity, low labour for farms, high input costs.”

However, as part of the solutions to reduce high prices of farm inputs, he recommended that, “the government needs to subsidize certain inputs, and the government needs to take away politics away from this subsidy, identify real farmers’ clusters, farmers’ corporate societies.

“The federal government needs to work with the state governments to identify what corporate societies are actual farmers, void of political farmers, and this input, these supports go directly to the farmers.”
If the government fails to intervene, farmers warn that food prices will continue to rise, affecting Nigerians across the country.