By Abbas Nazil
Climate change, rising petrol prices and increasing production costs are contributing significantly to high food prices in Nigeria, particularly affecting smallholder farmers and consumers, climate expert Taye Ojo has said.
Ojo, Programmes Manager at the Development of Education Action Network (DEAN), said smallholder farmers were bearing the impact of rising agricultural, transportation and irrigation costs while producing a substantial share of the food consumed by local communities.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Ojo said farmers were increasingly struggling to transport their produce to markets because of poor roads and high transportation expenses.
He explained that the problem was particularly severe for farmers producing perishable crops, as delays in accessing markets could result in produce deteriorating before reaching buyers.
According to him, farmers are sometimes forced to sell spoiled or partially damaged produce at significantly reduced prices, resulting in financial losses that further undermine their livelihoods.
Ojo also highlighted the growing cost of irrigation, saying farmers who depend on irrigation are spending more money on petrol to pump water from rivers and other water sources that are becoming increasingly dry.
Additional expenses on engine oil, equipment maintenance and other operational requirements are further increasing farmers’ production costs.
He said these rising costs eventually move through the agricultural supply chain and are reflected in the prices consumers pay for food.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that food inflation remained a major contributor to Nigeria’s cost-of-living pressures.
Food inflation stood at 17.52 per cent year-on-year in June 2026, although this was lower than the 25.41 per cent recorded in June 2025.
On a month-on-month basis, however, food inflation increased to 3.75 per cent in June from 2.98 per cent in May.
The National Average Cost of a Healthy Diet also increased, reaching N1,541 per adult per day in March 2026, compared with N1,513 in February, representing a 1.89 per cent rise.
Ojo attributed Nigeria’s persistent food price pressures to several interconnected factors, including high agricultural input costs, exchange-rate depreciation, insecurity in farming communities, transportation expenses and weaknesses in food supply chains.
He added that climate change was worsening these existing economic and structural challenges by exposing farmers to more extreme weather conditions.
According to Ojo, excessive heat is already affecting crops such as yam, with some farmers reporting cases of produce spoiling around the harvest period.
He said climate-related impacts were adding another layer of difficulty to an agricultural sector already struggling with high input costs, insecurity and inadequate infrastructure.
Ojo, who is also Project Lead of DEAN’s Climate Democracy Accelerator Programme, said poor rural roads, limited access to agricultural inputs and inadequate adoption of climate-smart farming practices were further reducing farmers’ ability to cope with changing climatic conditions.
He called on governments and other stakeholders to implement measures that would reduce farmers’ production and transportation costs while strengthening their ability to adapt to climate change.
He stressed that supporting farmers with climate-smart agricultural practices, improved infrastructure and affordable production inputs would be critical to reducing food losses and helping to stabilise food prices.
The expert warned that unless the underlying challenges affecting agricultural production and distribution are addressed, increasing climate pressures and rising operational costs could continue to place additional burdens on farmers and Nigerian consumers.