How Policy Somersaults, NiMet’s Misleading Weather Forecasts Made Nigerian Farmers To Lose N5 Trillion In 24 Months—PeacePro

<h4>How Policy Somersaults<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that farmers have lost nearly N5 trillion in productive capital over the past two years due to policy induced price crashes&comma; poor and misleading weather forecasts by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency &lpar;NiMet&rpar;&comma; and severe market distortions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Foundation for Peace Professionals &lpar;PeacePro&rpar; revealed this in a statement&comma; saying the country’s agriculture sector is drowning in a deep structural crisis&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The group’s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Executive Director&comma; Abdulrazaq Hamzat&comma;<&sol;a> described the losses as direct agricultural capital destruction at the producer level&comma; stressing that the estimate does not include secondary economic effects such as consumer inflation&comma; GDP contraction&comma; foreign exchange pressure&comma; or security related costs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Those impacts come later&period; What has already happened is the liquidation of farmer capital&comma;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em> the statement said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the statement&comma; farmers lost their grip on food prices in 2024–2025 due to poorly timed policy interventions&comma; price suppression mechanisms&comma; weak market coordination&comma; and unreliable weather forecasting by <strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">NiMet<&sol;a><&sol;strong> which forced farmers to sell produce below cost&comma; wiping out the capital required to sustain future production cycles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This was not a market correction&period; It was a policy shock that transferred value away from producers&comma;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em> the statement added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While Nigeria has an estimated 38–40 million people engaged in agriculture&comma; the group stressed that the most severe damage was concentrated among market facing producers&comma; not subsistence farmers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The most affected group includes 6–8 million producers&comma; small and medium scale commercial farmers&comma; storage poor price taking producers&comma; farmers engaged in grains&comma; tubers&comma; vegetables&comma; and legumes&period; These producers supply Nigeria’s urban and regional food markets&comma;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em> the statement reads&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The group maintained that the scale of destruction is comparable to a financial sector collapse&comma; with one critical difference&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This crisis did not happen in banks or stock markets&period; It happened quietly&comma; in farms and rural communities&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It raised concerns that depleted farmer capital will inevitably lead to reduced planting in 2026&comma; lower domestic food supply&comma; higher future food prices&comma; increased rural poverty and social instability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It urged authorities to publicly acknowledge the scale of agricultural capital destruction and immediately shift policy away from short term price suppression toward producer protection&comma; capital preservation&comma; and market stability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;No country can bankrupt its farmers and remain food secure and Nigeria will soon pay the price for policy decisions that treated farmers as shock absorbers for inflation&comma; if not corrected on time&comma;” the statement read&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;