The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, has warned that Nigeria’s current food security strategy is producing unintended consequences, with farmers and agricultural investors recording heavy losses due to the collapse of prices of key commodities.

In a policy brief on sustainable food security, Yusuf acknowledged that consumers are benefiting from declining food prices and a slight moderation in food inflation. However, he stressed that these gains have come at a high cost to producers and investors across the agricultural value chain.

According to him, the collapse in prices of major crops has eroded farmer incomes, discouraged investment, and weakened incentives to produce, posing a long-term risk to national food security. He cautioned that Nigeria cannot afford a policy environment that undermines confidence in agriculture while trying to make food affordable.

Yusuf identified a surge in food imports—particularly rice, maize and soybeans—as the immediate driver of the price crash. Other contributing factors, he said, include harvest gluts, inadequate storage and drying facilities, weak rural logistics due to poor roads and insecurity, limited aggregation hubs, and insufficient processing capacity.

He called for the urgent establishment of a clear, rules-based Farm Price Stabilisation and Farmer Income Protection Framework to prevent import-induced price crashes and protect farmer livelihoods. Such a framework, he said, should be market-friendly, targeted, transparent and digitally enabled, rather than discretionary or command-driven.

“Nigeria urgently requires a framework that balances food affordability for consumers with income protection for farmers and sustainability for investors,” Yusuf said, adding that government intervention should focus on correcting market failures in storage, logistics, finance and processing, rather than crowding out private enterprise.

As part of the framework, Yusuf recommended the introduction of Minimum Guaranteed Prices (MGP) or price floors for strategic crops such as maize, rice (paddy), sorghum and soybeans. While noting that this is a global best practice, he cautioned that price floors must be supported by adequate storage capacity, transparent governance and disciplined reserve management to avoid fiscal strain.

To tackle farmers’ liquidity challenges and reduce distress sales, Yusuf advocated the expansion of the Warehouse Receipt System nationwide.

He also urged the government to stabilise markets through structured institutional demand, linking farmers to programmes such as school feeding schemes, NEMA relief operations, and supply chains of the military, hospitals and other public institutions.

He further stressed that lasting price stability depends on agro-industrial development, noting that strong processing capacity absorbs surplus production, stabilises prices and creates jobs. Yusuf also called for investments in rural storage, modern silos, cold-chain infrastructure and logistics, as well as the adoption of farmer income protection tools such as weather-index and revenue insurance.

Finally, he urged the government to reduce high input costs, provide single-digit interest loans, and strengthen extension services to boost productivity, protect rural incomes and strengthen Nigeria’s food security and economic resilience.