Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Food Security Group

Executive Summary

Agrifood value chains (AVCs) in Nigeria have expanded rapidly in recent decades. This process has been driven, in part, by enormous aggregate investment on the part of the many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that operate all along the AVCs (Reardon et al. 2019). These include producers, input suppliers, transporters, aggregators, processors, wholesalers, and vendors, among others. While these MSMEs together form the backbone of Nigeria’s food system, they face significant challenges that impede their operations, growth, and productivity.

The “Research supporting African MSMEs to provide safe and nutritious food” (RSM2SNF) project aims to better understand the structure, conduct, and performance of three particularly nutritious and locally relevant foods, namely fish, tomato, and green leafy vegetables (GLVs). In May–July 2022, the RSM2SNF project administered a survey to capture stakeholder perceptions of the most pressing challenges faced by MSMEs in the fish and vegetables value chains in Nigeria. The survey also captured a broad assessment of the food system in Nigeria and touched on gender roles in the fish and vegetables values chains and awareness and perceptions of related legislation, among other topics. Agrifood stakeholders from both the north and south of Nigeria were recruited using both purposive and snowballing methods. The survey was administered to 200 stakeholders, including representatives from civil society organizations, government, farmers, the private sector (post-production), and academia. Survey results are analyzed for the full sample and are disaggregated by region of the country, gender of the respondent, and stakeholder group.