Viewing very broad metrics shows that the agony attached to Nigeria’s food security problems still lingers with hungry households keeping at their limited ration for as long as it takes. Regardless of the extreme situation, a section of the country celebrates cheaper prices when buying cooking essentials, unlike other regions where the residents aren’t so fortunate.

Off to Yobe, Borno and Adamawa where the prices of mostly vegetables had taken a sudden dip in rates unlike the year’s second quarter spanning April and May. Back then markets sold a big basket of tomatoes at ₦120,000 compared to a more than fifty percent slash in the middle of August.

A mix of tomatoes together with pepper would usually begin the process of making soup feel complete. Thankfully, for households, pepper that used to cost ₦170,000 four months ago can now be purchased at the rate of ₦82,000 for a bag.

Relief also got to other demographics of veggies including the capsule-like Okra. Several weeks back in the market, a bag had to be sold at ₦50,000 but currently, the figure has shifted to half the price. This is just how far the optimism goes because an Onion bulb oddly maintains its rather steep price for an item usually as small as a fist.

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Onions instead of toeing the line of family members have gone up. A bag is as high as what Okra went for when the calculation covers what the situation was like 16 weeks ago. Generally, traders do not see it as rocket science when these changes happen. It is simple economics obeying the demand and supply rule.

At the Perishable Items Market, Damaturu in Yobe State, a recent harvest is the reason why the residents have cheaper food to buy unlike the first half of 2024, plagued by extremely high energy costs that shut transport costs up and difficulty locating farm produce from remote setups to city centres easily became the offshoot of that.

Prices of perishable items usually drop whenever harvests are made and new goods arrive in the market, but the prices rise when there is a shortage of goods, says Alhaji Muazu Abbas, the chairman of the Damaturu market speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The last major festival, the 2024 Eid Kabir was held mid-year and it witnessed quite unfortunately for starving citizens the feisty impact of Nigeria not having enough food for its citizens. Several years of terrorists and bandits taking over villages in the northern parts are partly blamed for this as well as climate change which breeds irregular rain or flooding.

Turning a bleak corner soon

So that this cycle is not repeated, the President of Nigeria Bola Tinubu through the Agriculture and Food Security ministry, has set a positive prediction for the remainder of the year. According to the minister in charge, Mr Abubakar Kyari, citizens should expect a superb harvest ahead.

While speaking on an early August weekend programme to discuss the issues the country has with feeding, he had said that about October-November this year; that is when we are going to have the harvest. We are expecting a bumper harvest hopefully, barring any other natural issues. God forbid!

When picturing outcomes in the northeast in terms of grains, there is no comfort there. It is because over there at the major insurgence hotspot in the past decade, terrorist violence has prevented farming from progressing for such a long time.

Now, displaced communities are returning from settlements abroad where they had been living as refugees. Over 120,000 of them want to head back home from Cameroon and may soon get back to their old life which usually involves heavy farming activities that will aid their country’s food security and still feed their neighbours.

Before the refugees fully make their return trip, the price of yam tubers would probably have been lowered in rate if the government planners successfully made their strides with earlier arrangements to drive output.

What the mood of tubers and grains read right now

In the meantime at Bayan Tasha Market in the Damaturu metropolis, NAN’s investigation confirmed two small tubers of yam costing ₦1,500 in 2023, compared to ₦4,000 right now. With a sum of ₦15,000 wrapped in an envelope, a buyer can get three big tubers but the former rate a year ago was just ₦3,500.

Quite notable areas that cater to yam demand are Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau states but transporting many tubers from these states has grown steeply so markets get their supply to reflect the trend. There is also the ever-present concern about storage after farm produce has been harvested and is waiting to hit the neighbourhood stores.

Storage facilities preserve crops and increase profit, especially in the cultivation of perishable items.

For now, supplies from Kaduna and Kano in the northwest are helping to mitigate shortages for Borno residents, and also Adamawa too.

For traders like Alhaji Mohammed, patience had been key for enduring a protracted bleak outlook for so long and he believes relief is near. The small-scale industrialist speaking for those like him says we just have to wait and see what will happen when the harvest commences in a few weeks.

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Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.