Rising food prices are pushing Nigerians to grow food in sacks, buckets and other small spaces around their homes as households seek ways to ease pressure on budgets.
The practice, which involves cultivating vegetables and staples in discarded containers, window boxes and available compounds, is gaining traction especially among urban families with no access to farmland.
Food inflation stood at 19.59 percent year-on-year in September 2026, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, leaving prices sharply higher than a year earlier despite a slowdown in monthly gains.
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Against that backdrop, the Consumer Advocacy and Empowerment Foundation said it concluded its Green Living Initiative, a programme that trained 25 people in small-space cultivation and reached 125 through a train-the-trainer model.
Participants were taught to grow crops using readily available materials including empty oil kegs, paint buckets, sacks and other household items.
At the closing ceremony in Lagos, participants displayed crops including okra, cucumber, sweet potato, tomato and groundnut grown without farmland.
Chiso Ndukwe-Okafor, executive director of CADEF, said the programme was designed to give households practical options with limited space and resources.
“Food prices affect what families can put on their tables,” Ndukwe-Okafor said. “Small-space gardening cannot on its own solve food inflation, but it can give households another option.”
CADEF said each of the 25 initial participants was encouraged to train at least three others, with some reaching more, extending the programme’s reach to 125 people.
Ndukwe-Okafor said small-space farming can also provide supplementary income, citing a participant cultivating yam in about 100 sacks in his compound who now feeds his household and sells part of his harvest to pay school fees.
The extent to which backyard cultivation reduces household food spending depends on scale, crop choice and resources, she said.
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Chibueze Nwachukwu, a beneficiary, said the training gave him confidence to start growing at home.
“Three months ago, I wasn’t confident about growing my own food,” Nwachukwu said. “I have now grown groundnuts and plan to try other crops.”
Olufunke Obafemi, deputy director at the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, said initiatives that promote sustainable production, reduce food loss and encourage responsible consumption help strengthen food systems.
The Green Living Initiative was implemented under the 2026 Green Action Week theme “Sharing Community,” with support from the Green Action Fund, funded by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and administered by Consumers International.
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