By: Simeon Shodimu
Nigeria is said to lose roughly 38 million tonnes of its farm produce yearly due to post harvest lose.While farmers in Nigeria are been attacked in farms and some killed, Nigerian farmers still cultivate much but lose large chunk due to post harvest lose .Persistent post harvest losses indeed remains a serious threat to Nigeria’s quest at achieving food security.Inefficiencies such as poor packaging and handling, heat and lengthy transit times in non-refrigerated trucks, routinely force fresh produce, especially fruits and vegetables, to putrefy.
The worsening situation, which constitutes a direct threat to national food security and economic stability, contributes to infant mortality and worsens Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) as the country leads Africa in food wastage.Rarely does a morning go by without a fleet of rickety, weather-beaten, open-air trucks snaking through the streets of Lagos State into the Mile 12 International Market, where their content – assorted agricultural produce, including fresh fruits, vegetables and grains – is emptied routinely.Among other things, these articulated vehicles bear tomatoes compressed by their own weight, habanero peppers suffocating under the sweltering tropical sun, and several tonnes of spinach already yellowing due to natural leaf senescence and rapid chlorophyll breakdown from detachment from root systems.Since these farm products have made their way through the LAKAJI Corridor (a transport route that spans 10 Nigerian states: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Kaduna, Kano, and Katsina, which connects the high-density consumer and industrial markets in the South-West with the massive livestock and agricultural production zones in the North), by evening of the arrival day, small heaps of rotten produce begin to dot the fringes of the market.Markets like these in most parts of the South have, as a matter of fact, become multi-billion-naira graveyards of highly sought-after food that will never feed a single mouth. No thanks to this multi-day journey in non-conforming vehicles that turn a reasonable percentage of agricultural produce into puree or putrefied mass.Three days after taking delivery of over 40 baskets of tomatoes, Al-Makura Ndanusa, a 43-year-old trader perched atop a wooden stool in a corner of the Mile 12 Market, found himself doing a mental calculation of the methane-belching heaps that some of his wares had become due to poor packaging/handling, heat and lengthy transit times on pothole-infested roads, which turned fresh produce into waste.“The market value of each of these baskets of tomatoes that you are seeing here is N120, 000,” he told The Guardian a couple of weeks ago. “After sifting the bad ones, it ran into about four baskets. Now, if we are to do the mathematics, that is N480,000, but since they have been partially and seriously damaged, you can never sell the four baskets for half the actual price. The best you can get is either a quarter of the price, or slightly above that. What that means is that I would labour to sell both the good and the bad ones while praying to cover the cost of purchase,” Ndanusa lamented as he watched his wares liquefy.Across Lagos State alone, thousands of families are either skipping dinner or settling for less nutritious alternatives because the prices of a basket of tomatoes, a basket of pepper, and bags of onions have tripled and spiralled out of the poor’s reach.
While Ndanusa struggles to come to terms with his losses in the Mile 12 Market, at Ojuwoye Market, which is centrally located off the busy Agege Motor Road, in the Mushin area of Lagos State, Madam Olabisi Ogunyinka has carefully arranged her fungus-infested tomatoes, which she calls “ata esha,” in small bowls waiting for the arrival of their buyers.Ogunyinka, who has been in the trade for over three decades, said that the never-before-seen rising cost-of-living crisis has contributed to heavy losses experienced by perishable-item sellers “because even the rotten tomatoes are still ‘expensive’ to many buyers, some of whom shop for alternatives rather than patronise us.”Similar scenarios play out at Ile-Epo Market, Abule Egba, and the Jakande Fruit Market located in Ketu, Lagos.Up in the North Central, Benue State specifically, a tree crop farmer, Iornem Tenshack, told The Guardian that he has made peace with himself as he yearly watched heaps of ripe mangoes – his major source of livelihood – rot away in the sun-heated farmland before being carted away to markets many kilometres away, or being mangled in transit owing to the crater-filled stretches of rural roads that have remained unimproved for several years.In the last two decades, the heartbeat of Nigeria’s food crisis has not been a lack of soil or sweat, but the unabating disappearance of 38 million tonnes of food grown that never made it to the dining table.‘National integrated cold chain blueprint built around LAKAJI, other strategic agric corridor imperative’WEARING his dual hats as Country Director for the World Agriculture Forum (WAF) and President of the Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA) said that Nigeria can fundamentally shift its mindset and capital allocation from just “growing more food” to “preserving what is grown”?“This it can do by transitioning from a ‘grow more food’ strategy to a ‘grow, preserve, transport, process and market’ strategy. Cold chain infrastructure should be treated as essential national infrastructure, just like roads, railways, ports and electricity. If significant public or private investment became available, I would recommend a national integrated cold chain blueprint built around strategic agricultural corridors, beginning with the LAKAJI Corridor because it connects some of Nigeria’s largest food-producing and consumer markets. Nigeria must establish a National Cold Chain Infrastructure Development Programme with clear investment targets, measurable implementation milestones, and coordinated participation from the Federal Government, state governments, development partners, and private investors.”Isong continued: “Cold chain investment therefore serves as both an agricultural and an anti-inflation intervention. Reducing post-harvest losses increases effective food supply without requiring equivalent increases in cultivated land. Lower losses improve market availability, moderate seasonal price volatility, increase farmer incomes and enhance national food security.”“Under the AfCFTA, African markets are becoming increasingly integrated and competitive. Buyers demand consistent quality, food safety standards, traceability and reliable delivery schedules. Without a modern cold chain, Nigerian exporters struggle to satisfy these requirements consistently. As a result, neighbouring countries with stronger cold chain infrastructure often gain competitive advantages in regional markets, even where Nigeria has greater production capacity. Developing a modern cold chain ecosystem would significantly improve Nigeria’s ability to export fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy products, flowers and pharmaceuticals while supporting compliance with international quality and food safety standards,” the WAF boss stated.Nigeria adopted a National Cold Chain Policy in 2023 to stimulate private investment and improve storage standards. But its implementation has continued to face challenges from energy insecurity, high diesel costs and rising electricity tariffs. The OTACCWA president noted that the National Cold Chain Policy was an important and timely policy initiative because it formally recognised the strategic importance of temperature-controlled logistics to Nigeria’s food system. “However, policy adoption is only the beginning. Implementation remains uneven, and significant work is still required to translate policy objectives into nationwide infrastructure and investment.“The principal constraints are well known. Reliable electricity remains inadequate in many agricultural production areas. Diesel costs have increased operating expenses considerably. Financing for cold chain investments remains limited, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, many operators continue to face high capital costs and limited access to affordable long-term finance. I would therefore describe implementation as progressing, but more slowly than the scale of Nigeria’s food security challenge requires. The policy framework is in place. The priority now is accelerated execution supported by coordinated public-private partnerships, but majorly private.”Akinsete agrees with Isong, but stressed that innovative financing should be made available for farmers, cooperatives, aggregators, and agribusinesses to adopt post-harvest technologies. Blended finance, equipment leasing, concessional loans, and targeted subsidies can accelerate adoption while reducing the financial burden on smallholder farmers.“Also, Nigeria must improve rural logistics by investing in feeder roads, transport infrastructure, and organised aggregation systems that shorten the time between harvest and market. Importantly, we need better data. We cannot effectively manage what we do not measure. Nigeria should institutionalise the tracking of post-harvest losses across commodities and regions, while expanding agricultural performance indicators beyond production to include food preserved, value retained, shelf-life extended, and farmer income.
