Kaduna Maize Farmers Lose ₦10.16bn, Beg FG for Lifeline Amid Price Crash

News in Brief

-Over 2,000 Kaduna maize farmers lost ₦10.16 billion in 2025 due to input costs doubling while produce prices halved, prompting a bailout plea.

-They warn that mass farm exits in 2026 could derail food security unless the government intervenes swiftly to stabilise production.

Grain farmers in Kaduna State have called for the federal government’s aid as they face a grim future after reporting about ₦10.16 billion in losses from the 2025 maize season. The loss threatens the sustainability of many farms and was caused by a sudden nationwide slump in grain prices despite skyrocketing input costs.

The farmers, numbering 2,143 across 23 local governments across the state, are pleading with the Federal Government for free or subsidised fertilisers to save the 2026 planting season. 

The Crushing Blow of 2025 Harvest

In a letter written through their counsel, Barrister Ehizogie Fidelis Imadojemu, the farmers petitioned the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Minister of Agriculture, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the three senators representing Kaduna State at the Senate. 

The letter detailed how the farmers, operating under a maize farming scheme coordinated by Alhaji Rufai Muazu Dikko (popularly known as Sarkin Labar), were unable to recover production costs after harvest in 2025.

The grain farmers, mostly in Igabi, Soba, Kauru, Zaria, Sabon Gari and other local government areas of Kaduna, lost over ₦10 billion.

The scheme, which began in 2017 with just 1,000 hectares, has ballooned over the years into a major operation of nearly 10,000 hectares involving 2,143 farmers. These farmers operate with borrowed capital, seeds, and logistics from Sarkin Labar, to repay a percentage of the harvest in maize while selling the rest for profit.

According to the letter, from the total output of about 450,000 bags harvested across the 10,000 hectares, the farmers calculated the aggregate loss.

A 50kg bag of NPK fertiliser jumped to ₦60,000, urea to ₦50,000, pushing the cost per hectare over ₦2 million, double the previous year's ₦1 million. With average yields at 45 bags of 100kg maize per hectare, farmers needed ₦44,578 per bag to break even. Instead, market prices crashed to ₦22,000 per bag, half what they required, wiping out ₦22,577 per bag.

The incident isn't isolated, as many farmers across the country are battling with crashing food prices, making them sell at a loss. Nationwide grain gluts from earlier imports until January 2025 flooded markets with cheap maize, millet, sorghum, and more, driving prices below production costs and trapping farmers with unsold stocks. In northern Nigeria, these losses hit hardest, forcing many to question if farming is still sustainable.

Desperate Plea to Abuja

The farmers further stated in their letter that many of them cannot afford the cost of farming in the next season due to the huge losses. They also avowed that unless urgent support is provided, many producers, particularly in northern Nigeria, may abandon farming in the 2026 season, a development they say could undermine the Tinubu administration’s food security agenda.

Proposing a solution to the problem, the farmers requested a bailout through the CBN in the form of free or heavily subsidised inputs such as fertiliser and urea for the 2026 farming season. This support will then be reimbursed with its maize equivalent at the end of the season.

The farmers argued that such an intervention would stabilise grain production, boost food availability, and deliver political and economic dividends ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“Only by this arrangement will our clients and many other grain farmers around the country return to their farms in the 2026 farming season,” the letter said.

They also requested an urgent meeting with government officials, noting that preparations for the next planting season would soon begin.