Founder and MD of BIC Farms Concepts, Adebowale Onafowora, has described the reported N3.5 trillion lost annually to post-harvest waste in Nigeria as a serious issue that weakens food security, affects rural livelihoods, and worsens poverty levels.
While welcoming the Federal Government’s launch of the Nigeria Post-Harvest Systems Transformation Programme (NiPHaST), Onafowora noted that achieving meaningful results would require more than policy announcements.
He believes the programme can support farmers, but only if implementation is strategic and inclusive.
“It must not be business as usual,” he said. “This initiative can move farmers from being reactive and vulnerable to being better prepared and in control.”
He pointed to technologies such as hermetic bags, small-scale solar dryers, and on-farm silos as tools that can help farmers preserve their produce after harvest, reduce losses, and avoid being forced to sell at low prices. According to him, this shift would help families store food for longer, improve their incomes, and reduce their exposure to hunger and hardship.
“This is not just about food preservation. There is also a need to protect wealth and dignity at the community level,” he added.
To improve the effectiveness of the programme, Onafowora advised the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to move away from centralised decision-making.
Instead, he proposed a more practical approach where the government provides funding and policy direction, while local agribusinesses and cooperatives handle training, equipment deployment, and community engagement.
He said farmer cooperatives should be empowered to oversee shared storage facilities in their communities, while microcredit or support funds should be made available to help smallholder farmers access the technologies.
Onafowora also addressed the wider challenges of insecurity and food access, saying that stabilising food prices and ensuring regular availability can reduce community tensions. He emphasised the need to spread storage solutions across many rural areas rather than focusing on large central silos, which are often vulnerable to disruptions.
“Decentralised storage strengthens the food chain. We must also create safer routes for transporting farm produce,” he added.
He concluded that success should be judged not by public statements, but by how funds are used, how partners are selected, and whether smallholder farmers actually benefit on the ground.
In his remarks, Austine Gbenga Adeniba, Chief Operating Officer at Eliakim Integrated Services Limited, stated that the potential of the NiPHaST programme depends largely on how it is implemented.
He noted that the programme is designed to support farmers through improved storage of grains, fruits, and vegetables, helping reduce post-harvest losses and giving them access to better markets, both locally and internationally.
Adeniba explained that affordable storage options can also help families maintain food supplies throughout the year, adding to household stability.
He outlined key components that will determine the programme’s success. These include the construction of community-level warehouses, cold storage units, and upgraded silos in partnership with private sector players.
Other priorities are training for farmers in post-harvest handling, as well as improved transport, affordable credit, and cooperative-based aggregation.
According to him, logistics should also be enhanced with better roads, solar energy solutions, and cold chain transportation, while transparency and data-based monitoring should guide all stages of execution.
He called for sustainable practices such as local management of storage sites by cooperatives, proper maintenance funding, and the use of solar power to reduce running costs.
He also stressed the need for anti-corruption measures to strengthen trust in the public-private model.
Adeniba acknowledged some of the government’s efforts so far, including the official rollout of the NiPHaST programme, solar-powered cold rooms under the Cold Storage Initiative, and promotion of low-cost storage technologies by the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI).
He added that national silos and strategic food reserves are set for upgrades, while private organisations such as ColdHubs are already adding storage capacity in states like Imo, Akwa Ibom, and Nasarawa.
