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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

Erick Boy

researcher spotlight

Erick Boy

Erick Boy is the Chief Nutritionist in the HarvestPlus section of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. As head of nutrition for the HarvestPlus Program since 2008, he has led research that has generated scientific evidence on biofortified staple crops as efficacious and effective interventions to help address iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Development Strategies and Governance

Olufemi Popoola

Research Analyst

Bio

Olufemi Adebola Popoola is a Research Analyst in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, based in Abuja, Nigeria. He is an agricultural economist with a demonstrated history of working in the research industry through his experience as a research fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER). He is skilled in research design, data collection and analysis, report writing, and research-policy linkages. His research interests are in the areas of food security and climate change, technology and innovation studies, and impact evaluation.

He holds both a masters’ and bachelor’s in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ibadan and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta respectively. He is a member of the African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).

Development Strategies and Governance

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Navigating Nigeria’s food system challenges in the face of inflation and reform

2025Omamo, Steven Were; Andam, Kwaw S.; Balana, Bedru; Amare, Mulubrhan; Popoola, Olufemi; Nwagboso, Chibuzo
Details

Navigating Nigeria’s food system challenges in the face of inflation and reform

Main Messages: 1. Low-income households in both urban and rural areas are hardest hit by rising food prices. Post-reform (fuel subsidies removal and exchange rate liberalization) price shocks and persistent inflation have disproportionately affected poor urban and rural households, forcing them to reduce food consumption and dietary diversity. Malnutrition and food insecurity are on the rise, particularly among children and women-headed households, with sharpest impacts in conflict-affected areas. 2. Small-scale farmers are not benefiting proportionately from price increases. Despite surging food prices, small-scale farmers face escalating input costs, poor market access, and structural in-efficiencies that leave them with marginal gains far below the rate of inflation. 3. Trading networks maintain healthy margins, amplifying systemic inefficiencies. Traders and intermediaries dominate the food supply chain, passing on increased costs to consumers while pre-serving or even increasing their profit margins, highlighting inequities in the distribution of benefits along the value chain. 4. Recent economic reforms and external shocks exacerbate structural weaknesses. Economic reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidies and exchange rate adjustments, have amplified existing challenges in the food system, including high transport costs, inadequate infrastructure, and fragmented markets. 5. Policy interventions should protect vulnerable groups and strengthen local food systems. Addressing these disparities requires targeted safety nets for consumers, support for small-scale farmers, and systemic investments to reduce inefficiencies in the value chain while promoting cli-mate-resilient food systems.

Year published

2025

Authors

Omamo, Steven Were; Andam, Kwaw S.; Balana, Bedru; Amare, Mulubrhan; Popoola, Olufemi; Nwagboso, Chibuzo

Citation

Omamo, Steven Were; Andam, Kwaw S.; Balana, Bedru; Amare, Mulubrhan; Popoola, Olufemi; and Nwagboso, Chibuzo. 2025. Navigating Nigeria’s food system challenges in the face of inflation and reform. Policy Brief April 2025. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174326

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Economics; Food Systems; Households; Inflation

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Brief

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Report

Solar drying technology for post-harvest loss management of horticulture products: Findings from baseline survey in Nigeria

2024Balana, Bedru; Popoola, Olufemi; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Olanipekun, Caleb; Totin, Edmond; Salaudeen, Kamaldeen Oladimeji; Muhammad, Aminu; Shi, Weilun; Liu, Yanyan
Details

Solar drying technology for post-harvest loss management of horticulture products: Findings from baseline survey in Nigeria

Creating a sustainable food system requires addressing the critical challenges of food waste and loss. This is particularly crucial for small-scale farmers who supply local markets but lack access to modern preservation technologies, leading to significant product losses between harvesting and selling. Research indicates that in low-and middle-income countries, approximately 38 percent of harvested perishable agricultural goods are lost before consumption. Globally, about 22 percent of fruits and vegetables are lost in the supply chain before reaching retailers (FAO, 2019). These postharvest losses have significant impacts to low economic return and household food and nutrition security. Post-harvest losses also contribute significantly to environmental concerns, accounting for roughly 8 percent of yearly global greenhouse gas emissions. Among all food categories, fruits and vegetables experience the highest losses by weight.

Year published

2024

Authors

Balana, Bedru; Popoola, Olufemi; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Olanipekun, Caleb; Totin, Edmond; Salaudeen, Kamaldeen Oladimeji; Muhammad, Aminu; Shi, Weilun; Liu, Yanyan

Citation

Balana, Bedru; Popoola, Olufemi; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Olanipekun, Caleb; Totin, Edmond; et al. 2024. Solar drying technology for post-harvest loss management of horticulture products: Findings from baseline survey in Nigeria. CGIAR Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets Technical Report. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169151

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Capacity Development; Food Security; Horticulture; Households; Nutrition; Solar Drying; Sustainability

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Report

Resource thumbnail

Report

Setting the stage for improved drying: A stepping stone to solar dryer

2024Olanipekun, Caleb Ibukun; Salaudeen, Kamaldeen Oladimeji; Totin, Edmond; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Balana, Bedru; Popoola, Olufemi
Details

Setting the stage for improved drying: A stepping stone to solar dryer

The world population is growing fast, heralding the challenge of feeding over 9.1 billion people with safe food by the year 2050. The amount of food production has increased through efforts made by actors in the agricultural production sector (Bourne, 2014). Food produced globally is sufficient to provide 100% of nutritional requirements of every living human being, but unfortunately, this has not translated to better food security in certain countries in the world, malnutrition has gotten worse in several countries around the world. According to GHI, 64 countries will not reach low hunger, much less zero hunger (SDG2) by 2030, in fact, low hunger status may not be reached globally until 2160.

Year published

2024

Authors

Olanipekun, Caleb Ibukun; Salaudeen, Kamaldeen Oladimeji; Totin, Edmond; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Balana, Bedru; Popoola, Olufemi

Citation

Olanipekun, Caleb Ibukun; Salaudeen, Kamaldeen Oladimeji; Totin, Edmond; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Balana, Bedru; and Popoola, Olufemi. 2024. Setting the stage for improved drying: A stepping stone to solar dryer. CGIAR Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets Technical Report November 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163564

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Drying; Food Security; Harvesting; Solar Drying

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Report