A productive potato harvest in Plateau State in north-central Nigeria has left farm-gate rates catapulting downward – and farmers seeking answers.
By August 25, 2025, marketers across the Jos Plateau were barely fetching a fifth of the prices they had been commanding just earlier.
A 50-kg sack is averaging 30,000-40,000 Naira ($19.50-26), plummeting from the earlier 150,000-170,000 Naira ($97.50-110.50) range.
Notably, the crop has yielded sizeable tubers unlike in previous years when production was top-notch but yield rates low.
Potato grower Solomon Albert told the Daily Trust that a dew-free season helped him reap 15-20 bags per potato seed pack.
Farmers like Albert grow the tuber crop three times annually, just enough to break even or distribute losses.
Sometimes this same glut turns against the farmers who have to resort to cross-border trading alternatives such as Chad, Niger and Ghana.
But due to agent profiteering and sometimes low regional demand, producers have since 2019 been shifting to other crops.
Another cause of the shift are underdeveloped storage facilities that make growers rush their crop to the market despite low prices.
Exacerbating matters is that the harvest coincides with the start of the West African rainy season when storage is critical.
Buyers Leverage Low Rates
Unlike farmers, buyers are regarding the current price crash as a godsend for it makes the traditionally dear produce accessible.
Residents of Lagos especially express their joy at the affordability of a tuber they usually buy at top dollar.
Before July 2024, buyers in major cities could barely eat potatoes after their rates hit 150,000 to 180,000 Naira ($97.50-117) per 65 kg.
The 2024 priciness was tempered by political insecurity, which forced some growers to free their homes and cut supplies.
By the July 2024 harvest, however, prices had crashed to 45,000 Naira ($29.25)/65 kg, presaging a similar situation in 2025.
The question in 2025 thus remains whether the government will hear farmers’ pleas of patronage through proper storage infrastructure. If the plea is successful, it will help manage potato rates in the Middle Belt area of Nigeria. And as the statistics below indicate, Plateau State produces almost all of Nigeria’s Irish potato haul.
Nigeria and Plateau State Potato Statistics
Nigeria ranks in the top echelons of worldwide potato production under the following facts:
- It is the 4th biggest potato producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Nigeria’s potato productivity at over 3,100 kg per hectare is one of the highest worldwide.
- Jos Plateau, inclusive of the Plateau State, is the source of 90% of the national potato output.
- Potato consumption in Nigeria is rather low at 4.11 kg per person per year (2021). It last peaked in 2018 and 2019 at 4.46 kg and 4.54 kg per person per year, respectively.
Here is a glimpse of the production and acreage patterns for potatoes in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023, per the FAOSTAT:
| Year | Production [tonnes] | Acreage [Ha] |
| 2022 | 1,216,408 | 322,523 |
| 2021 | 1,216,885 | 323,510 |
| 2020 | 1,221,406 | 322,272 |
| 2019 | 1,210,936 | 321,788 |