Nigeria: feed costs squeeze smallholder poultry farmers

Small poultry farmers in north-eastern Nigeria say they are buying fewer birds or leaving the business as feed and other costs rise. In interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), farmers in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa asked for help with inputs and access to cheaper credit.

In Yola, Adamawa State, Haruna Ismail said he had cut the number of birds he buys. Feed that once cost ₦16,000–18,000 a bag now sells for ₦21,600–23,000, he said. Day-old chicks have also become more expensive: Ismail put their price at ₦2,270, up from ₦980–1,050 in 2025. A sachet of poultry medicine that used to cost ₦400–800 now sells for ₦1,800–2,000, he added.

In Potiskum, Yobe, farmer Isa Bawa gave a longer comparison. Four or five years ago, he said, a bag of feed cost ₦5,000–7,000. Today, starter feed sells for ₦23,000 and finisher for ₦21,000. NAN did not state the bags’ weight, so the prices are best read as reports from those farmers’ local markets.

In Tum, Borno State, Shettima Isa said feed had risen from ₦10,000 to ₦18,000 a bag, while broilers were selling for ₦8,000–12,000, depending on size. Another farmer, Usman Kabiru, told NAN he had stopped poultry farming because feed was too costly and selling prices too low.

The farmers called for subsidised feed ingredients, support for local maize and soybean production, affordable milling facilities and low-interest loans or grants. Their accounts describe what is happening on individual farms; they do not establish the scale of any change in national poultry output.

The cost of finished feed has not always moved in step with grain prices. The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service reported that Nigerian farmgate corn prices had fallen by about 52% by December 2025 from the previous year’s highs. In February 2026, the Poultry Association of Nigeria urged millers to cut feed prices after corn and soybean costs dropped. The report cited diesel, transport and poor roads as reasons lower ingredient costs were not fully reflected in feed prices.