Nigeria’s agricultural sector is facing a staggering economic setback, with post-harvest losses in 2025 estimated at between ₦3.5 trillion and ₦5 trillion. The disclosure was made by the President of the Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA), Mr. Alexander Isong, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
According to Isong, the country lost between 30 and 40 million metric tonnes of food across major agricultural value chains during the year. The losses affected critical commodities such as tomatoes, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meat, fish and root crops—foods that are central to national food security and household nutrition.
He explained that the losses were not from unharvested crops, but from produce that had already been cultivated, harvested and transported. Farmers had committed significant resources to land preparation, seedlings, fertiliser, irrigation, labour and logistics before the products were eventually wasted due to systemic inefficiencies.
“When such volumes are lost due to inadequate cold storage, poor logistics and weak infrastructure, the country is effectively losing Gross Domestic Product that has already been created,” Isong noted. He stressed that post-harvest loss should not be viewed solely as an agricultural issue, but as a broader infrastructure and economic challenge.
The OTACCWA president pointed to the absence of certified cold chain systems as a major contributor to persistent food inflation, shrinking farmer incomes and Nigeria’s limited competitiveness in export markets. Without modern preservation and distribution systems, he warned, agricultural productivity gains would continue to be undermined.
Isong, who also serves as the Country Director in Nigeria for the World Agriculture Forum, described cold chain infrastructure as the critical link between agricultural production and sustainable economic prosperity. He identified the shortage of functional cold storage facilities as the primary obstacle to reducing post-harvest losses nationwide.
To reverse the trend, he called for urgent and coordinated national investment in refrigerated transport systems, aggregation centres and modular cold storage facilities. Strengthening these areas, he argued, would not only preserve food but also stabilise prices, boost farmer earnings and enhance Nigeria’s overall economic resilience.
As food security concerns intensify, the scale of post-harvest losses underscores the pressing need to modernise agricultural logistics and infrastructure—transforming what is currently wasted into measurable economic growth.