Why Nigeria is Facing Worsening Food Crisis—Veriv’s Survey

This was informed by its survey, Veriv Africa Nigeria Food Price Baseline Survey 2025, which found that the country is facing a worsening food crisis stemming from systemic challenges such low agricultural productivity, insufficient policies, dearth in policy harmonisation, as well as climate, geopolitical, and economic shocks.

The survey examined the state of Nigeria’s agricultural sector, focusing on six key crops: cocoa, sesame, rice, corn, tomato, and yam. The study, conducted across five case-study states, revealed critical challenges and opportunities within these value chains.

The report found that despite agriculture employing 30.1 per cent of Nigeria’s labour force and contributing 24.64 per cent to GDP, the country faces a food crisis with food inflation reaching 26.08 per cent in January 2025 and 33 million people are projected to experience food insecurity.

It warned that Nigeria’s crop yields are significantly below global averages, indicating substantial inefficiency in the sector.

According to the study shared with Business Post, Nigeria’s maize yields stand at 1.939.1 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha), significantly below the global average of 5,962.3 kg/ha and the African average of 2,154.8 kg/ha.

At the same time, rice yields in Nigeria (1,974 kg/ha) also lag behind the global average of 4.751.8 kg/ha and the African average of 2.313.3 kg/ha, citing data from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) data from 2023.

This is also similar across other select crops like cocoa, millet, and tomato.

The survey, which included 543 farmers, found that most farmers operate on small land holdings (1-4 acres) and rely on family labour and found that most farmers (60 per cent) finance their activities through personal savings, indicating a lack of access to formal credit.

The data also showed that key challenges faced by Nigerian farmers include lack of access to finance (54 per cent), insecurity (21 per cent), and post-harvest losses (12 per cent).

Farmers desire greater access to finance (52 per cent), improved security (22 per cent), and access to subsidised inputs (19 per cent) as key interventions.

Most farmers (64 per cent) feel better off than in previous planting seasons due to high crop prices, but over half of the surveyed expect the country to be worse off in the next twelve months.

While 82.5 per cent of farmers plan to continue with their primary crops, those who plan to change highlight high input costs, pests, diseases, and low yields as reasons.

Veriv recommended that addressing security challenges, attracting more private sector participation in food production activities, providing rural infrastructure, and establishing staple crop processing zones (SCPZs) in physical proximity to core crop-producing zones is a good course of action.

The firm also advocated democratising and decentralising agricultural extension services to farmers, adopting modern farming techniques, and promoting access to finance to unlock the sector’s potential and ensure food security.

Speaking on the survey, the co-founder of Veriv Africa, Mr Basil Abia, told Business Post that Nigeria lacks an updated central food production data and this survey provides a tentative outlook before the company releases a wider general agriculture data for the country, which will be released later this year.

“As the months go, we will add more crops and expand coverage regarding the value chains; we shall add another layer by 2027 with a beta test by December 2026. That layer is a for a marketplace and mostly for international businesses that want raw materials from Nigeria.”

He pointed out that the first phase of the project are important for social impact projects before evolving into serving corporate needs that will see companies have adequate data for making their decisions.