By Zulaiha Danjuma
Garba Ubale Yanako spent heavily planting rice during the 2024 wet season. After harvest, he lost nearly everything.
“I barely got 15 per cent of what I spent on the plantation,” he told Daily Trust.
Eighteen months after Nigeria’s July 2024 import waiver on food commodities, the policy meant to curb hunger has crashed paddy prices, shut 90 rice mills, and pushed Kano farmers to abandon rice. With the 2026 wet season starting, planting intentions have collapsed, threatening to erase a decade of gains in domestic production.
Many farmers in Kano State are refusing to plant rice. Some are switching to soybeans, sesame and ginger. The reason is the gap between production costs and market prices for locally harvested rice.
In July 2024, the federal government introduced a temporary waiver of import duties and taxes on key food commodities including husked brown rice. The policy is part of broader fiscal measures under the Presidential Accelerated Stabilisation and Advancement Plan, aimed at curbing rising food prices and addressing food insecurity.
While the waiver initially covered husked brown rice, the government’s updated fiscal policy has extended duty cuts to other rice varieties, including broken rice and bulk rice, to make them cheaper for consumers.
According to farmer Shehu Gurin Mallam, “Rice prices have crashed despite how much we spend on agro-inputs”. He said many farmers have run into losses due to higher costs of fertilizer, herbicides and labour, compared with lower selling prices after harvest.
“To make it worse, we learnt that the government has introduced a licensing system for rice importation,” he told Daily Trust.
BusinessDay reported that the price for a ton of paddy fell to N350,800 in early 2026 from a peak of N720,000 in mid-2024, caused by a surge in cheaper imports and smuggling, leaving farmers struggling to break even.
The federal government’s import waiver, intended to lower food inflation, has led to a surge in foreign rice in Nigerian markets, including Kano.
Imported rice sells for as low as ₦40,000 per 50kg bag, often cheaper than local varieties that sell for ₦60,000 to ₦65,000. Farmers report paying significantly more for inputs like fertilizer, herbicides and labour than in previous years, according to Punch Newspaper
Unable to compete with cheaper imports, many smallholder farmers are abandoning fields, switching to grains like soybeans, or cutting rice hectarage.
The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN, said in March 2026 that out of 150 integrated rice mills across the country, 90 had shut down since the policy shift intensified competition from imports, according to Daily Trust.
Kano State has 68 major milling facilities. Industry sources told Daily Trust that many have scaled down operations, with several medium-scale mills suspending processing or closing entirely since March 2026.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration banned rice importation through land borders, a policy that increased domestic production and encouraged investment in backward integration.
That policy helped lift paddy production from 2.8 million tons in 2010 to 8 million tons in 2021, a high-yield year driven by the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, with milled rice output averaging 5.3 million tons annually, according to CBN and FAO data.
According to CBN data reported by Daily Trust, Kano State recorded paddy output of 1.6 million tons in 2022.
However, consumer groups had backed the waiver. In a report by Punch Newspaper, The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in January 2025 that “the importation of rice to fill local supply gaps is a necessary fiscal intervention.” The LCCI, however, slammed the Federal Government for its delayed implementation of the duty-free food importation policy.
With the 2026 wet season underway, the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN, Kano says planting intentions for rice have dropped, as reported by Daily Trust.
As of April 2026, the CBN has not announced new Anchor Borrowers funding for rice this year. If the trend holds, Nigeria risks reversing a decade of gains in self-sufficiency.
