The federal government’s decision to ease restrictions on selected food imports has provided short-term relief to consumers facing soaring food prices.

BusinessDay reported that agricultural stakeholders, however, warn that the policy is causing heavy losses for local producers and jeopardising long-term food security in Nigeria.

According to media reports, Fatai Afolabi, managing director at Foremost Development Services Limited, revealed that about 3,500 rice farmers are considering abandoning cultivation after recording combined losses of more than N93 billion.

He said the crisis extends beyond rice to cassava, tree crops and the broader agricultural value chain.

“Food security is not solely about ensuring that food is available and affordable today. It is also about safeguarding the capacity of local producers to continue producing tomorrow,” Afolabi said.

The federal government’s temporary relaxation of restrictions on selected food imports has helped to moderate prices of staples such as rice, maize, cassava products, tomatoes and vegetable oils.

However, Afolabi argued that while output prices have fallen, production costs remain stubbornly high.

“While output prices have fallen, the cost of producing food in Nigeria remains stubbornly high,” he said, listing expensive fertilisers, high fuel prices, rising transportation costs, costly improved seeds and agrochemicals, limited access to affordable credit, poor electricity supply, weak road infrastructure and inadequate storage facilities as persistent challenges.

In several cassava-producing areas, he noted, tubers are selling at prices that barely cover harvesting costs. Some farmers have reportedly left crops unharvested because the cost of transportation exceeds market value.

Tree crop farmers, particularly oil palm and cocoa growers who contend with long gestation periods, are also feeling the strain, with disruptions undermining investor confidence and discouraging new investments.

Afolabi warned that sustained losses could push more farmers out of production, deepening Nigeria’s dependence on imports and exposing the country to global supply shocks and foreign exchange pressures.

“A food strategy that feeds the nation today must also empower those who will feed it tomorrow. Affordable food and profitable farming are not mutually exclusive goals,” he said.

Concerns are equally mounting in the vegetable oil industry, where stakeholders say cheap imports are threatening billions of dollars in investments and millions of jobs.

Emmanuel Ibru, chairman of Plantation Owners Forum of Nigeria (POFON), described the situation as an existential crisis for an industry that has rebuilt itself over two decades.

“Last year, especially towards the end of the year, we saw a proliferation of imported vegetable oil coming into the country,” Ibru said.

He attributed the surge to high production costs, which make it difficult for local producers to compete with cheaper foreign alternatives.

The impact, he noted, cuts across the entire value chain. “Commercial palm oil, the red one, is a very important input into vegetable oil. When vegetable oil producers are suffering, people producing palm oil are also suffering,” he said.

Recalling the industry’s troubled past, Ibru said palm oil production was “almost comatose” in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Policy protection, including a ban on the importation of refined, bleached and deodorised vegetable oil, helped revive the sector.

“In the last 20 years, though slow but steady, our production has gone up from roughly 800,000 tons to about 1.3 to 1.4 million tons,” he said, adding that other edible oils contribute an additional 400,000 to 500,000 tons annually.

“That growth came at a cost. Billions of dollars have been invested by foreign and indigenous companies. All these investments are being threatened now by the importation of cheap vegetable oil.”

Ibru warned that between two and three million Nigerians engaged across the edible oils value chain — from smallholder farmers to processors and input suppliers — could be affected.

“While you’re trying to push down commodity prices, what’s the point if the people meant to benefit don’t have the jobs or resources to partake in it?” he asked.

Alphonsus Inyang, president of the National Palm Produce of Nigeria, said local prices have crashed by 50 per cent in less than two months, even as the country enters peak production season.

“Currently, at the price we are selling palm oil in this country, we are selling at less than N2,000. This is not good enough for smallholder farmers who depend on this for school fees, medicine and the general well-being of their households,” Inyang said.

He disclosed that smuggled palm oil is entering through more than 300 entry points across five coastal states. “They offload every night and morning, and at the end of the day we see lorries and trailers leaving Oron, heading to other parts of the country,” he said.

According to Inyang, the unchecked influx is forcing local producers to sell at prices dictated by foreign smugglers while the government loses revenue.

“The farmers are being suppressed through the influx of oil that comes in at very cheap prices, thereby forcing local producers to sell at prices determined by smuggled products,” he said.