Stakeholders have raised the alarm over the country’s worsening post-harvest losses, expressing worry that the problem poses a threat not just to the agricultural sector and its value chain, but also to the country’s industrialisation effort.

Just last week, the Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA) revealed that Nigeria recorded between N3.5 and N5 trillion in post-harvest losses in 2025.

OTACCWA’s President, Alexander Isong, attributed the losses to inefficiencies across major agricultural value chains and inadequate cold chain infrastructure, warning that the economic impact extends beyond agriculture to overall national productivity.

He expressed further that Nigeria lost an estimated 30 to 40 million metric tonnes of food across key value chains in 2025. These included tomatoes, vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, fish and root crops.

According to him, post-harvest loss is not just an agricultural problem, but a significant infrastructure and economic challenge as funds are often committed to seedlings, fertiliser, labour, irrigation and transport before the loss.

He maintained that such waste erodes income and national output.

He added that escalating production costs, insecurity and continuing post-harvest losses were pushing more people out of the sector.

Reacting, President, Association of Small Business Owners in Nigeria (ASBON), Dr Femi Egbesola, said the government must move beyond lip service to actually supporting smallholder farmers and enable them to develop proper storage facilities that could store produce.

Egbesola further advocated training and sensitisation for farmers, stressing that most of the produce could be preserved by drying it or increasing its worth via value addition.

Canvassing for 21st-century training in skills and technology for the farmers that would enable them to convert raw farm produce to industrial-level goods and products, Egbesola said the right infrastructure must, however, be put in place before these could come to fruition.

He added: “For example, pepper can be dried and ground into powder, which lasts longer than fresh pepper and can be used in hundreds of other products. Our methods of doing this are still not as refined and industrialised as they should be.

“These processes need 24-hour electricity, and we certainly do not have that yet in the whole of Nigeria and it is quite sad. The power situation has gone from bad to worse in the last few months, and without constant electricity, one cannot even preserve anything, even if you have a modern cold-storage facility.”

He added that where most of these farms are located, lacked electricity, describing it as disheartening despite the potential and resources within the country.

He maintained that with the provision of basic amenities, especially power supply, Nigeria would continue to lag in industrialisation.

“Additionally, we have urged the government to aggregate these producers in clusters because when they are in clusters, they can better maximise their operations, even without support from the government. Unfortunately, many of them do not see the need to join associations, as they have argued that it does not benefit them in any way.

“It is the government’s responsibility to work with these associations to benefit and support producers as much as possible. if you look at other countries, you see how strong their associations are and how said associations work for members; sadly, that is not obtainable here,” he added.

He urged advocacy, lamenting that these losses are not encouraging in terms of food security or helping the country’s industrialisation drive.

Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, noted that post-harvest losses, especially perishable goods, had become a huge problem that is seemingly defying all solutions.
Pointing out that the significant loss was a part of the structural issues affecting the agricultural sector, he also noted that preservation and storage were energy-driven and energy-intensive.

“Given the energy situation in Nigeria, the cost of preservation and storage is extremely expensive and so there are limitations to how far investors are willing to invest in that particular sector as not many people in that value chain have the capacity to invest in cold-storage facilities.

“The starting point in dealing with this challenge is for Nigeria to take urgent steps to deal with energy security and specifically encourage investments in cold storage. Clusters must be created for producers pending when we can deal with at a national level, our energy issues.

“Producers must be supported truly because if after reeling them in with promises but later abandoning them to start buying gas or diesel or paying for Band A tariff, the business would collapse very quickly. So, there have to be incentives to support these investments,” he said.

He called for better connectivity between the farmgate and the market, stressing that it could only be achieved with the provision of infrastructure, particularly a motorable road.

He regretted that rural roads connecting to the markets and to the cities were practically non-existent, noting that as long as connectivity issues persisted, avoidable losses of agricultural produce would continue even at a larger scale.

“Also, this affects returns on investments in the sector, farmgate prices and the welfare of the rural population. Because there is no storage, they are forced to sell at next to nothing, which affects their own returns on investments and worsens rural poverty,” he added.

Describing it as a multi-complex and multi-dimensional issue that requires urgent attention and focus from government at all levels, he said if care was not taken, sourcing of raw materials for industries would become even harder, leading to reduced industrialisation and increased economic problems.