The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari has said that Nigeria agricultural sector experienced steady growth in the 2025 wet season with increased production and lower market prices for major staple foods.
The Minister disclosed this during the presentation of the 2025 Agricultural Performance Survey (APS) by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria at the Ministry’s Conference Room, in Abuja, recently.
Kyari said that the survey remains one of the most essential instruments for evidence – based planning, monitoring and policy direction in the Nigeria’s agricultural sector and would provide realistic picture of production outcomes, farmers experiences and sect oral constraints, upon which decisions and targeted interventions can be built.
He pointed out that 2025 APS findings would present both encoding progress and critical challenges. “On the positive note, the report confirms steady growth in the production of major staples like rice, maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea, yam, and cassava of which show increases over 2024 levels’’.
He stated that ‘’this progress coupled with significant drop in good prices across all zones, is a clear reflection of improved supply conditions and cumulative effect of our ongoing interventions in input support, extension delivery and mechanization.”
The Minister revealed that ‘’it is particularly heartening to see that farmers across regions have demonstrated remarkable resilience despite irregular rainfall, localized flooding and pest pressures, however, the report highlighted persistent challenges to include; rising input costs, particularly for fertilizer and fuel which continues to limit productivity among smallholders’’.
He stressed that “Mechanization coverage, though improving, remains uneven, post-harvest losses, especially in South -West and North-Central zones pose serious to greats to good availability and farmers’ incomes.”
He pledged that “the Ministry is committed to implementing the key recommendations of the survey and shall institutionalize the dry season agricultural performance surveys a complement to the wet season APS to ensure national agricultural planning becomes a year round, data – driven exercise, intensify support for local fertilizer production, enhance climate – smart agricultural initiatives and strengthen extension systems by recruiting and equipping more agents, as well as reaching out to a greater number of farmers”.
He commended the leadership and Staff of NAERLS, the coordinating research institutes and the technical department within Ministry for the depth collaboration that has gone into the 2025 edition, noting that the complementary studies on commodity prices demonstrated a new standard of excellence and transparency in national agricultural performance reporting.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Professor Adamu Ahmed, represented by Prof. Sanusi Rafindadi stated that Nigeria’s farmers have shown remarkable resilience, “Our task now is to build on these gains and make agriculture more adaptive, efficient, and data-driven.”
In his presentation, the Executive Director of NAERLS, Professor Yusuf Sani gave an overview of the mandate, vision and mission of the research institute and confirmed the 2025 APS steady growth in Nigerian agriculture, driven by expanded cultivated areas, improved practices, and farmer resilience across major producing states.
He added that the study also found that food prices fell sharply across all six geopolitical zones, with maize, rice, and sorghum prices dropping by more than 50 per cent nationally, reflecting improved food availability.
Signed
Eremah Anthonia (Mrs.)
Chief Information Officer
For: Head, Department of Information
8/10/2025
