Import, low grain prices, inputs’ cost put farmers on brink

Many who maintained their harvests with the hope of receiving better prices are now licking their wounds because grain prices have been falling since January, below the cost of production last year.

In an effort to curb the rising food inflation in the country, the federal government announced a 150-day duty-free import window in July, 2024.

Farmers who were unable to sell their harvest at a profit were badly impacted by the import, which was intended to mitigate the impact of growing food costs.

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Two hundred and fifty tonnes of maize and 250,000 tonnes of wheat were permitted to be imported by the federal government, which were intended to supply the country’s small-scale millers and processors.

While the 20 per cent duty levy for wheat and beans were eliminated, the 30 per cent duty levy for husked brown rice, as well as the 5 per cent duty levy for sorghum, millet and maize was completely removed.

The federal government lost over N188 billion in revenue as a result of the suspension of import tariffs on food commodities, according to data from the Nigeria Customs Service.

Farmers who made significant investments in labour, transportation, inputs and other aspects of production have suffered greatly as a result of the import.

Idris Bawa, a crop and dairy farmer from Bauchi, told the Weekend Trust that farmers are now having difficulty growing crops because input costs are still high and grain prices are low.

 “I bought NPK at N45,000 per bag while Urea is N36,600 per bag. Importation of farm produce is seriously affecting us the farmers negatively because we produced the food and it is available in markets, yet the government decided to import food from outside, thereby enriching farmers from other countries while exposing Nigerian farmers to poverty. We have the land and the farmers; hence, I don’t see any reason why the government should import,” he told Weekend Trust, adding that the importation has done enormous damage to farmers.

Speaking on the current situation of things, the farmers said, “Spending on the farms with the current cost of agricultural implements, vis-a-vis the prices of food items, is not giving me any profit. This year, many of the farmers are only producing on very small scales, just to keep the business going, but honestly, not for any profit unless the government suspends its policy on importation. It is really killing our morale as farmers.”

Bawa, who is an architect by profession, said what the government of Nigeria needed to do was to subsidise fertiliser and other farm implements like tractors, planters, harvesters, among others, in a way that would encourage new entrants.

He suggested that the government purchase agricultural products from farmers at a competitive price at the end of the growing season and provide subsidies to the general public when food prices rise.

 “With this, I believe that farmers would feel encouraged to go to farms to produce more. A situation where the government imports not only discourages the farmers from going to farms but renders them jobless, which will have a negative impact on the economy of this country,” he said.

According to Bawa, even the commercial banks are not making things better.  “I approached commercial banks in the past but it did not yield any positive result as their demands for collateral and high interest is really not encouraging.”

Similar to the farmers who grow grains, the Nigerian cassava industry faces a dismal future because of what stakeholders called “massive import” of starch by companies that used to buy locally.

The scenario has reportedly infuriated industrial cassava processors, who have invested billions to establish factories that will manufacture starch and premium food-grade flour, leading some of them to halt operations.

In a recent interview with Weekend Trust, Mr Kehinde Lawrence, the programme manager for the Industrial Cassava Stakeholders Association of Nigeria (ICSAN) said the scenario had a significant negative impact on the processors and a knock-on effect on the farmers.

He said that because industrial processors no longer buoght cassava from farmers, farmers are now forced to rely only on garri processors, who offer lower prices than the cost of production, putting both the processors and the farmers in a precarious situation.

A tonne of cassava was sold at N120,000 or more in December, depending on locality, but the price crash point is currently between N80,000 and N90,000 per tonne. And one processor projected that “it will get worse – between N50,000 and N70,000.”

Weekend Trust reports that the price of a cassava pick truck in Nasarawa has decreased from N240,000 to N110,000 since January. Due to the current circumstance and the inconsistent approach towards agriculture, farmers have lost faith in the sector.

Even the recent re-launch of 2,000 tractors by the Tinubu administration in a bid to boost agricultural productivity has sparked renewed debate about the effectiveness of such interventions in Nigeria.

Dr Austine Maduka, the founder of COMAFAS, a community-based agricultural organisation, said, “This is not the first time such initiative is launched. The former President Goodluck Jonathan administration previously launched a similar programme, distributing tractors to farmers in Sheda, Abuja. However, many farmers are yet to see the impact of the tractors, with some questioning the fate of the equipment distributed under the previous administration.”

He said critics pointed to the lack of infrastructure, poor maintenance culture and insufficient training for farmers as reasons the country is not yet prepared for widespread agricultural mechanisation, adding that the concerns are not limited to the tractors’ whereabouts.

Experts opined that Nigeria’s agriculture sector confronts more basic issues, such as poor policy execution, lack of support for smallholder farmers and inadequate infrastructure.