Nigeria, a nation rich in agricultural potential, grapples with a paradox: millions face acute hunger, yet staggering amounts of food are lost after they are harvested. This post-harvest loss (PHL) acts as a silent saboteur, undermining the efforts of hardworking smallholder farmers and deepening food insecurity.
The World Food Programme (WFP) highlights that 30.6 million people in Nigeria face acute food insecurity, a crisis fuelled by conflict, inflation, and the impact of climate change. Addressing PHL is not just about saving food; it’s about stabilizing livelihoods, boosting the economy, and building a more resilient nation. AyosifamHub recognizes that reducing this waste is essential to achieving true food self-sufficiency in Nigeria.
Based on the initiatives and strategic focus of humanitarian and development partners like the WFP in Nigeria, here is what must be done to reduce post-harvest losses and secure the future of food in the country.
1. Prioritize Value Addition and Food Processing 🥣
One of the most effective ways to combat the spoilage of perishable goods is to stop relying solely on fresh consumption. The WFP’s livelihood programs, which include training in food processing, point to this critical intervention.
The Action: Move beyond subsistence farming by investing in decentralized, small-scale food processing centres across rural communities. Train farmers, especially women and youth, in skills like drying, milling, fermenting, and packaging.
The Impact: Turning surplus tomatoes into paste, cassava into high-quality flour, or fruits into juice and preserves drastically extends their shelf life, creating new income streams and preventing waste.
2. Invest in Climate-Smart Storage and Logistics 🧊
Most losses occur due to poor storage, inadequate transportation, and limited access to energy.
The Action: Introduce and subsidize low-cost, climate-smart storage solutions at the farm gate, such as hermetic bags and solar-powered cool rooms or evaporative cooling systems for vegetables. Concurrently, improve the logistics chain by focusing on rural road networks and utilizing better packaging methods for transit.
The Impact: This ensures produce survives the journey from the farm to the market and remains safe and nutritious for longer periods, directly reducing physical waste and the need to sell at distress prices.
3. Strengthen Farmer Capacity and Resilient Livelihoods 🧑🌾
WFP’s focus on smallholder farmers support and building resilient livelihoods shows that the solution starts with better farming and handling practices.
The Action: Provide targeted training and resources to smallholders on optimal harvesting timing, gentle handling techniques, and sorting/grading standards. AyosifamHub champions the need for practical, localized workshops to disseminate these best practices widely. Furthermore, encourage diversification into less perishable or high-value activities, like aquaculture and year-round vegetable gardening, as WFP promotes.
The Impact: Better on-farm practices minimize damage before the produce even leaves the field, creating a robust starting point for the rest of the supply chain.
4. Drive Policy and Systemic Change 🏛️
For these interventions to be sustainable, they must be backed by government commitment, as the WFP supports through capacity strengthening for food security and nutrition.
The Action: The government must institutionalize policies that incentivize private sector investment in the entire agricultural value chain—from providing patient financing for agro-processors to creating shock-responsive social protection systems that can absorb market gluts. Support for essential services, like the WFP-led Logistics Cluster, is vital for ensuring market access even in challenging regions.
The Impact: A clear, supportive policy environment attracts the large-scale investment needed to build the modern infrastructure (like cold chains and processing facilities) that can solve PHL nationwide.
Reducing post-harvest loss in Nigeria is a solvable problem that requires a coordinated effort: empower the farmer, equip the processor, and enable the system. By turning perishable produce into valuable, stable goods and improving infrastructure, Nigeria can convert billions of Naira worth of food waste into lasting food security and prosperity.
