Stakeholders in the agriculture sector have described the outgone year 2025 as a period of cautious recovery — one in which Nigeria’s agriculture showed resilience, helped stabilise food prices and demonstrated what is possible when policy direction, data and stakeholder engagement begin to align.
They agreed that the year 2025 was neither a breakthrough nor a failure.
Across crop, livestock and agro-processing subsectors, farmers, commodity associations, agribusiness leaders and analysts in separate interviews with Daily Independent described 2025 as a year of modest recovery after the severe shocks of 2024.
They pointed out that food availability improved in several regions, prices moderated and production expanded for key staples, yet they warned that without urgent reforms, the progress recorded could quickly unravel.
Prince Oyewumi Oyedele Oyetunde, Editor-in-Chief, Farmers Choice Magazine, described the sector’s performance as one marked by “steady agricultural growth,” noting that government and research bodies reported higher output during the 2025 wet season.
“Key staples like rice, maize, yam, sorghum and cassava recorded higher production levels,” he said, adding that agriculture remained “a backbone of the Nigerian economy,” supporting GDP growth alongside services.
This stabilisation was visible in food markets. Several stakeholders pointed to declining average prices for staples in comparison with 2024, a development that brought relief to consumers battered by inflation.
Oyewole Okewole, Senior Associate Consultant at FutuX Agri-consult Limited noted that “there was a general price reduction in food compared to 2024,” with higher output recorded for crops such as cassava, rice, maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea and yam.
Africanfarmer Mogaji, an Agribusiness Strategist went further, describing 2025 as an “80 per cent improvement” when compared to the previous year.
“Almost all the prices this year have been reduced by at least half compared to 2024,” he said, crediting increased engagement by the Ministry of Agriculture and closer collaboration with stakeholders.
One of the most striking examples cited was tomato pricing. Mogaji recalled that for more than two decades, tomato prices typically spiked by 300 to 400 per cent between May and August.
“Last year, a 50kg basket sold for between N120, 000 and N200, 000. But in 2025, the goal was to peg it at N50, 000 — and for the first time in 26 years, that was achieved.”
According to him, the impact was felt nationwide, even if the process went largely unreported.
Beyond prices, output gains were widely acknowledged.
Adebowale Onafowora, Managing Director of BIC Farms Concept, noted that the sector rebounded from the lows of 2024, with the National Bureau of Statistics reporting 2.82 per cent growth in Q2 2025.
“We are moving, but we aren’t moving fast enough to outpace our population growth or inflation.”
He attributed record outputs in rice, maize, sorghum and cassava to expanded cultivation and farmers responding to the high prices of the previous year.
Government initiatives featured prominently in stakeholder assessments.
The National Agricultural Growth and Agro-Pocket Project (NAGS-AP) was repeatedly cited as a major intervention, particularly its dry-season wheat programme.
Oyewumi said the programme mobilised tens of thousands of farmers, targeting output valued at about N160 billion and aimed at reducing import dependence.
Anibe Achimugu, President, National Cotton Association of Nigeria, (NACOTAN), said government actions were “increasingly shifting from statements to systems.”
From his perspective, 2025 saw greater emphasis on structured input delivery, mechanisation, farmer data integrity and coordination with states and development partners.
“The agriculture sector has remained a major pillar of the economy,” he said, stressing that deliberate collaboration with commodity associations driven by smallholder farmers was critical.
Data-driven governance was another recurring theme. Onafowora described the Farm Family Census and Tractor Census as a turning point.
“You cannot manage what you do not measure,” he said, adding that these datasets were “the first step toward actual accountability.”
Okewole, also highlighted renewed emphasis on transparent data collection and technology adoption as a foundation for addressing long-standing constraints.
He pointed to reports that federal budget allocation to agriculture rose significantly between 2023 and 2025, reflecting stronger state commitment to food security and mechanisation.
Austine Gbenga Adeniba, Chief Operating Officer of Eliakim integrated Services Ltd, similarly noted that agricultural spending crossed N800 billion, describing it as a sign that the sector was being prioritised.
Yet beneath these gains lay serious vulnerabilities. Insecurity dominated stakeholder concerns and was repeatedly described as the single biggest threat to sustained growth.
Onafowora referred to it as an “insecurity tax” that farmers pay daily.
“North-Central hubs — our food basket — saw declines in cultivation because farmers are literally afraid to walk to their fields,” he said.
Henry Olatujoye, a former National President of the National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN) echoed this view, describing 2025 as “good but still underperforming due to insecurity and high cost of inputs.”
While production increased, he warned that without resolving security challenges in farming communities, gains would remain limited.
Achimugu also identified rural insecurity as a key reason why improvements had not become transformational. Attacks in farming belts, he said, continued to disrupt production, raise risk and undermine confidence.
“Deliberate and collaborative interventions must be brought to bear,” he warned, to keep sector performance above expectations.
Alongside insecurity, rising input costs placed enormous strain on farmers, as fertiliser, agrochemicals, fuel and transport costs surged, squeezing margins even as food prices fell.
Sani Danladi, National Secretary of the National Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NATPAN), painted a stark picture from the farmers’ perspective. “You cannot justify buying a bag of fertiliser at N50, 000 and selling a bag of maize at N20, 000. It is not fair.”
According to him, sustainability depends on balance.
“If I can sell one bag of maize to buy one bag of fertiliser, it’s okay. But when I must sell two or three bags to buy one, people will back out of farming,” he warned, adding that Nigeria lacks the foreign reserves to sustain food importation for over 200 million people.
Climate-related disruptions further exposed the sector’s fragility. Flooding, droughts, pests and irregular rainfall affected yields across multiple regions.
Onafowora described the situation bluntly as “climate chaos,” saying rain-fed agriculture continued to be mocked by unpredictable weather patterns.
Okewole noted that vulnerability to climate shocks, weather variability and input-cost inflation remained widespread, while sub-sectors such as livestock, fisheries and agro-allied production were described as “very fragile.”
Sunday Ezeobiora, National President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), speaking from the poultry sub-sector, said farmers were increasingly forced to adopt technology, solar systems and climate-smart practices just to survive record high temperatures.
The debate around food importation revealed sharp divides. While imports contributed to lower prices and consumer relief, many farmers said they paid the price.
Yinka Adesola, a stakeholder in the shea industry described 2025 as “a big disaster from the farmers’ view,” blaming tariff waivers on imports for massive losses.
“The masses are happy because prices crashed, but how long can the country survive on import?”
Mogaji acknowledged that limited importation helped expose market manipulation by a few dominant players, but criticised the failure to mop up surplus produce when prices crashed.
“Government said they would mop up from farmers if prices went too low, but that didn’t happen,” he said, warning that many producers were left stranded.
Structural weaknesses persisted across the value chain. Poor storage, logistics and rural infrastructure continued to drive post-harvest losses, eroding gains from increased production.
Adeniba noted that a significant portion of fruits and vegetables spoiled before reaching markets, while mechanisation remained slow and ext,” access and execution remained weak. “Budget allocation is one thing; financing and implementation are another,” he said, urging the government to streamline overlapping budget cycles and ensure funds reach farmers.
Despite these challenges, many stakeholders insisted that 2025 demonstrated what is possible when engagement, policy and production align. Mogaji praised the accessibility of the agriculture minister, describing unprecedented engagement with sector experts.
“That engagement helped stakeholders feel acknowledged,” he said, linking it to improved stability in food markets.
In the end, Onafowora rated the sector 5.5 out of 10. Adeniba placed it at 6 out of 10. Others called it a “triumph of resilience,” a “modest recovery,” or a “year of steady but below-potential performance.”
They warned that resilience alone is not enough, that without decisive action on insecurity, input affordability, climate adaptation, mechanisation, storage and structural reform, they fear that the gains of 2025 could easily unravel.
As Nigeria begins 2026, the message from the fields is clear — progress has been made, but it remains fragile. Whether the sector consolidates or slips back will depend not on promises, but on sustained, coordinated action across all levels of government and the agricultural value chain.
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