The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has said that prices of essential food commodities have declined by as much as 50 per cent in some parts of Nigeria, reversing earlier spikes in food inflation. He made the claim at a stakeholders' engagement forum on Agricultural and Food Systems Transformation, according to The Guardian.
Kyari said food security has been a top priority of the administration and that results are beginning to reflect in market prices. He attributed the gains to reforms implemented over the past two to three years, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security said in its own account of the forum.
The Output Numbers Behind the Claim
The minister pointed to a 2025 Agricultural Performance Survey by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services, which he said confirmed higher outputs in major crops including rice, maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea, yam and cassava compared with the previous year, as The Guardian reported. The ministry also cited the distribution of more than 1.9 million bags of fertiliser to nearly one million farmers, alongside organic fertiliser support, regulatory training for inspectors, and the establishment of a National Reference Laboratory to curb fake agro-inputs.
A Claim Against a Difficult Backdrop
The ministry's optimism sits alongside sharper warnings from international agencies. The Food and Agriculture Organisation and its partners have projected that about 35 million Nigerians could face acute hunger during the June to August 2026 lean season, as Leadership reported, with farmer groups citing high input costs and insecurity as live threats to this year's harvest. The gap between reported national output gains and household-level pressure remains the central question for Nigerian food policy.
FoodPrices Nigeria monitors verified retail prices across Lagos markets, the independent measure of whether claims of price relief are reaching ordinary shoppers at the stall.