TACKLING FOOD WASTE AND LOSS

Government should invest heavily in cold chain equipment and services For years, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) have warned repeatedly that millions of Nigerians are at the risk of hunger. But the challenge is not about food cultivation but rather the loss and waste at different levels. Just recently, the Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA) disclosed that Nigeria recorded trillions of naira in post-harvest losses last year. “In 2025, Nigeria lost an estimated 30 to 40 million metric tonnes of food to post-harvest inefficiencies across major value chains, particularly tomatoes, vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, fish and root crops,” the President of OTACCWA, Mr Alexander Isong, said while expressing the frustrations of farmers in the country on the issue. “In monetary terms, this translates to approximately N3.5 trillion to N5 trillion in economic losses.” In November 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published a report titled, ‘Nigeria General Household Survey (Wave 5)’ which revealed that approximately two out of three households in the country indicated being unable to eat healthy, nutritious or preferred foods because of lack of money. Similarly, 63.8 per cent of households ate only a few kinds of food; 62.4 per cent were worried about not having enough food to eat, and 60.5 per cent ate less than they thought they should. As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the 2026 International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste today with the theme, ‘Transformative Potential of Reducing Food Loss and Waste,’ it is important to pay attention to the amount of wasted food that contributes to hunger in the country. Several experts have warned on this vexatious challenge in the agricultural sector that successive administrations in the country have been unable to address. The World Bank estimates that Nigeria loses and wastes 40 per cent of its total food production each year. When such volumes of food that cannot be accounted for due to inadequate cold storage, poor logistics and weak infrastructure, the implications are dire for the ordinary citizens. “Farmers had already invested in land preparation, seedlings, fertilizer, labour, irrigation and transport before these products were lost due to weak cold storage and logistics systems,” Isong explained while calling for investment in a cold chain. “Post-harvest loss is not just an agricultural problem; it is an infrastructure and economic challenge.” Ordinarily, food loss is accounted for in the production and supply chain after harvest on the farms. Waste is at the level of consumption through retail, food service, and household. It has long been established that fresh farm products like cowpea, garlic, pepper, onions, maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and several others that are grown in Nigeria start losing their nutrient value almost after harvest in the absence of refrigeration. Since some of these food products also have a short lifespan, many of them end up being wasted. Power supply is a big factor in this. It is estimated that 37 per cent of Nigerian agricultural production that requires refrigeration is lost due to inefficient or non-existent cold chains. Food spoilage due to a lack of cold storage costs small scale farmers about 25 per cent of their annual income. Tackling the challenge requires more than documenting its scale, according to Ifeoluwa Abulude, a postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, who has done extensive research on the problem. Reducing this food loss requires the adoption of integrated approaches, he argues. The 2026 International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste provides another opportunity to tackle this twin-challenge in a nation where many citizens go to bed hungry.