As of December 2022, a crate of eggs in Lagos, Nigeria sold for about 1 600 Naira depending on factors such as the location, size, type, and quality of eggs. By December 2023, the price had increased by over 50% to up to 3,500 naira. Prices are higher, but availability is also a problem. By the end of December 2023, many residents were virtually scrambling to buy eggs. A retailer told me that she must beg or lobby farmers to supply her shop. Many other people have described challenges in finding eggs to buy, with some recounting physical or virtual queues, repeated calls to suppliers, and other inconveniences. Farmers are stressed, and previously healthy relationships are strained due to higher prices. Someone told me that when she asked her longtime egg supplier why she was now selling a crate for 2 600 naira, the supplier snapped and impatiently asked her whether or not she was willing to buy.  

I tried to understand how eggs became so expensive in Ibadan and every relevant actor I spoke to told me ‘It’s the cost of feed’. I hear that chicken meat is also costly due to a great extent, to the cost of chicken feed. Other livestock sectors including fish and pig farming are equally affected and from all indications, the situation is the same or similar in most Nigerian cities.

Although multiple factors typically interact to influence or dictate the price of food, the high cost of livestock feed is significantly impacting livestock production expenses in Nigeria. Nigerian livestock farmers customarily use feed constituted of fish meal (as a source of protein), vitamins, mineral premixes, and essential amino acids particularly lysine and methionine. Fluctuations in global prices for fish meal stimulated the use of cheaper alternatives such as plant-derived protein sources like soybean in livestock feed formulations. Due to factors such as insurgency, terror, and reckless urbanization where in some parts, former agricultural farming areas have been converted to residential estates, Nigeria no longer produces cereals (another integral constituent of most livestock feed) on a sustainable scale, forcing livestock farmers to import maize, wheat and other cereals from neighboring countries.

Food insecurity is a well-described feature of the Nigerian situation, but there has been in recent times, a slow-burning, yet urgent increase in associated threats and risks. Owing to several factors including volatile exchange rates, high energy and transport costs and other logistical challenges along food production-supply chains, food, especially protein of animal origin has become very expensive in Nigeria. At this rate, in the next five to ten years, many more Nigerian citizens will have limited or little access to dietary animal protein sources, with potentially significant public health impacts.

Although it is already belated, the government must act decisively to manage the crisis. The problem is multifaceted and complex, but there are certain strategies that if implemented properly, can contribute to assuring lower overall costs of production and possibly stabilize prices of eggs and other livestock products.  

Any number of challenges along the chain can singly or in combination contribute to high prices for animal-based food and a vital first step is thus to monitor and understand the factors contributing to high production costs so that policymakers and relevant stakeholders in the livestock industry can better manage the situation to ensure stable and affordable food prices for Nigerian consumers. Specifically, it is important to systematically determine the factors that contribute to high livestock feed costs and design tailor-made approaches to minimise the impact of these factors.

Relevant authorities can encourage the use of local feed resources such as crop residues, agro-industrial by-products, legumes, and pasture. Fundamentally, it is important to invest in sustainable production of cereals dedicated to livestock feed production. More focused, targeted, and dedicated research into feed formulation and nutritional management is however required too. The government must support animal nutrition research to optimize feed formulations and feeding practices that ensure affordable and efficient utilization of available feed ingredients that produce feed that satisfies the nutritional requirements of livestock. Scaling is vital and it is important to ensure that research is taken beyond the shelf and applied to meaningfully contribute to food security. As feasible, government should implement targeted support schemes or subsidies to stimulate adoption of innovative techniques for feed manufacturing, equipment, and other relevant infrastructure. If implemented correctly and successfully, this can encourage sustainable feed production practices, but minimise the financial burden on farmers. Developing and utilizing well-balanced, high quality feed formulations can significantly reduce costs of production, but many different elements and factors influence operational costs and the final prices of agricultural commodities. It is thus important to optimise every step along livestock production-retail chain. Overall, escalating cost of livestock feed represents an immediate and critical threat to food security in Nigeria and must be taken seriously.