By Oladeinde Olawoyin, Ronald Adamolekun, Abdulkareem Mojeed, Ntiedo Ekott——————————That is the second a part of our sequence on post-harvest losses. Learn the primary half right here.
Rice
Nigeria loses 20 to 40 per cent of its rice at harvest factors and market phases. Past meals wastage, postharvest losses alongside the rice worth chain additionally include implications for local weather change, accounting for emissions of round 0.65 million tonnes of CO2 eq, into the ambiance.
For Victoria Nwachukwu, a 53-year-old farmer based mostly in Onicha Native Authorities Space in Ebonyi, one among Nigeria’s greatest rice-producing states, poor roads and lack of market entry are the highest elements behind postharvest losses in rice in her neighborhood.
“Many individuals could come to the state searching for rice, however they can’t enter communities like ours due to unhealthy roads,” she informed PREMIUM TIMES.
“In the event you contemplate the cash you’ll pay to maneuver these items out to the market, it could exceed the earnings you might be to make from the gross sales. So, unhealthy highway infrastructure and entry to the market are main challenges on this enterprise for us on this neighborhood.”
Amegu Amanator, the place Ms Nwachukwu cultivates the grain, is often a 45-minute drive from Abakaliki, the state capital. Nevertheless, due to the poor situation of the roads, journey time is roughly two hours.
Early this 12 months, she misplaced 18 models of 100kg baggage of rice value N1.7 million because of transportation constraints whereas making an attempt to convey the produce from the farm to the market. On account of her expertise, Mrs Nwachukwu is scaling again her cultivation.
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“We don’t have storage services right here, nevertheless it’s not an issue for me as a result of I usually dry and likewise use chemical compounds to protect my rice after harvesting,” mentioned Victoria Chinyere, who has a farm in Oshiri in the identical native authorities.
“The demand for rice is excessive, so I don’t expertise many losses. Instantly I end harvesting, consumers will come and choose all of them as a result of our place is accessible.”
Extending grains’ shelf life by making use of chemical compounds raises well being considerations. A number of grains saved in silos are preserved with heavy, poisonous chemical compounds, which generally make them unfit for consumption. Although consumed domestically, such grains fall in need of worldwide security requirements and are rejected on the level of export after the invention of chemical residue on them.
Owing to the unavailability of storage services, which value him N1.3 million two years in the past, smallholder John Nnabo, who crops rice in Oshiri, Onicha Native Authorities Space of Ebonyi State, now makes use of private-owned storage services. He pays between N1000 and N2000 month-to-month for each 100 kg of rice. That can assist protect the produce, pending when he begins milling the grains, whereas he preserves the remainder with chemical compounds at house.
“The sit-at-home order is a serious explanation for postharvest loss in the neighborhood. We can’t take rice to the market on Mondays. Due to this, the color of the harvested rice usually modifications, which is able to cut back the standard and worth,” he informed PREMIUM TIMES, referring to the controversial sit-at-home imposed on states in south-east Nigeria by the secessionist group IPOB.
The World Useful resource Institute noticed that: “any improvements in managing postharvest losses, corresponding to the usage of airtight baggage for grain storage, chilly room services for perishable meals, and many others., have meagre adoption charges in Africa. To assist shift these low adoption charges, it’s necessary to co-design such improvements with native farmers and entrepreneurs on the centre whereas investing in native small- and medium-sized enterprises to assist scale companies. These enterprises additionally want authorities help, together with public investments, tax incentives and insurance policies to scale.”
Yam
According to the Meals and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Nigeria accounts for 69.2 per cent of the world’s yam manufacturing, with 61.2 million tonnes of the crop produced in 2022.
Yam Enchancment for Processing (YIP) Nigeria, a examine of the yam worth chain within the nation executed by Sahel Companions & Advisory between December 2013 and 2014, discovered postharvest losses within the crop vary between 20-30 per cent, relying on the yam selection.
“We don’t have storage gear. We solely protect our yams based mostly on how we make our cupboard space conducive for our yams, one thing like thatched homes the place air flow is way,” Japheth Ishenge, secretary of the Affiliation of Yam Shade Homeowners and Yam Sellers Zaki Biam Market, informed PREMIUM TIMES.
Positioned within the Ukum Native Authorities Space of Benue State, Zaki Biam Market is thought to be the world’s largest yam market.
“If it’s in a thatched home, we perceive that the ceiling is there (to guard the yams),” he mentioned. “If it’s in a zinc home, we perceive that the ceiling is there, so we unfold sand on the ground earlier than we lay the yams on it as a substitute of placing them instantly on concrete.”
Mr Ishenge famous that farmers and merchants within the state file about 40 per cent of post-harvest wastage in yam. He added that the publicity of the tubers to warmth and moisture as a result of absence of secure storage homes is among the many principal elements stoking decay. He said that extreme software of fertiliser additionally causes yam spoilage.
Some farmers sprinkle chemical compounds on yams to scale back spoilage and, finally, wastage, he mentioned. Nevertheless, many farmers don’t undertake this preservation methodology due to the adversarial well being implications for customers.
Merchants from Cameroon, Niger and Ghana commonly come to Zaki Biam Market to buy the yam tubers.
The market accounts for about 70 per cent of the yam cultivated in Nigeria, with greater than 200 vehicles loading two million tubers of yam each week, to not point out buses and smaller automobiles.
Till 2020, the huge market wanted extra primary services like stalls that would protect yams from unfavourable climate and easy buildings with roofs and partially open sides for air flow that would function storage areas for yams.
“Air flow prevents moisture condensation on the tuber floor and assists in eradicating the warmth of respiration. Low temperature is important to scale back respiration, sprouting and rotting losses,” the FAO mentioned.
“Common inspection of tubers is necessary to take away sprouts and rotten tubers and to watch the presence of rodents and different pests. Normally, tubers needs to be protected against excessive temperatures and supplied with good air flow throughout storage,” it added.
Reduction got here for the market in 2020 when the Muhammadu Buhari administration constructed 660 stalls/sheds and a 200,000-yam storage facility to help micro, small and medium enterprises within the nation. Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo commissioned the ability and mentioned it focused lowering yam postharvest loss.
A lot as the 2 storage homes have helped reasonable yam wastage on the market, Mr Ishenge mentioned they’ll solely retailer the produce of 20 farmers at a time, which means many interventions are nonetheless wanted.
He informed PREMIUM TIMES that the yam farmers need the federal government to arrange a yam flour trade, which he believes will assist curb wastage and increase worth addition.
“Postharvest losses happen at varied phases from manufacturing, postharvest dealing with, advertising, distribution and processing. These embody losses in amount and tuber high quality, arising from bodily harm, rodent assault, fungal and bacterial illnesses, and physiological processes corresponding to sprouting, dehydration, and respiration,” the FAO mentioned.
“Weight reduction throughout storage in conventional or ” improved barns” or clamp storage can attain 10-12 per cent within the first three months and 30-60 per cent after six months. Weight losses alone of 33-67 per cent after six months of storage have been reported. In West Africa alone, it’s amounted to an annual lack of a million tonnes of tuber,” it added.
The FAO urged sealing yam tubers in polyethene movie baggage, coating them with Epolene E10, and curing them to scale back wastage.
Throughout PREMIUM TIMES’ go to to Bodija Market in Ibadan, Oyo State, merchants tie yam tubers to large frames manufactured from stakes inside yam barns to avert spoilage.
Ramoni Alapinni, a dealer, mentioned the follow is sort of necessary due to the poor technique of transporting yams from totally different elements of the nation to the market.
“A few of the yams got here from far locations, and we have to shortly put them within the open in order that they received’t spoil,” he mentioned.
“We go so far as Benue and Abuja to purchase the yam, and the best way a few of them are transported, there may be barely sufficient air within the automobiles. So generally, they get rotten earlier than we even get right here, and the state of our roads,” he added.
Fruits & greens
The Nigerian Saved Merchandise Analysis Institute (NSPRI) estimates that Nigeria information 50 per cent post-harvest losses in vegetables and fruit, a view shared by PLAN, which has said that they primarily happen throughout harvesting, storage, transportation and processing.
Main fruits grown in Nigeria embody mango, citrus, watermelon, pineapple, plantain, banana, guava and pawpaw, whereas greens embody onion, tomato, pepper, and carrot.
“The issue shouldn’t be manufacturing however post-harvest losses,” Mohammed Kabir, a younger farmer residing on the outskirts of Ogbomoso, one of many cities identified for producing mangoes on a big scale within the nation, informed PREMIUM TIMES.
“From Ogbomoso to Gambari (one other city outdoors Ogbomoso), you’d see mangoes in all places, with farmers putting them on the most important roads as you progress alongside. The absence of off-takers makes it tough for these farmers to make good gross sales as a result of a lot of the mangoes grow to be rotten after some weeks of harvest and poor gross sales,” Mr Kabir added.
In Osun State, a number of merchants on the Odo-Ori market in Iwo informed PREMIUM TIMES that the absence of off-takers in main farming areas and villages the place vegetables and fruit are grown usually compounds postharvest losses.
“The final time I planted greens on an unlimited expanse of land, I bumped into small troubles as a result of I might barely promote them at worthwhile costs,” mentioned Baba Ajadi, who owns a farm on the outskirts of city alongside Ibadan-Osogbo highway.
“The issue is multi-faceted: we now have points with seeds, storage and off-takers. Lots of our folks wrestle to keep away from postharvest losses by promoting at discounted costs at Odo-Ori on market days,” he mentioned.
When PREMIUM TIMES visited some markets in Iwo and Ile-Ogbo, many farmers lamented enormous losses from poor storage services and different logistic constraints related to the availability of farm produce.
At Oje, one of many greatest fruit markets in Ibadan, a dealer, Saheed Babalola, mentioned the wastage folks within the fruit and vegetable enterprise file couldn’t be quantified.
“There isn’t a trendy storage facility or electrical energy to assist retailer our fruits. So we put them inside an enclosure to maintain them forward of gross sales as soon as we return from the farm.”
Merchants watched waste collectors hauling baskets of spoilt oranges, bananas, watermelon, and different produce in direction of a ready truck across the median strip of the Oje-Gate motorway.
“It’s a loss for us and a serious problem for a lot of ladies doing enterprise right here. Think about what’s potential if we now have good storage services to assist eradicate or cut back the losses,” Mr Babalola mentioned.
Fish
To lower losses, fishermen in Akwa Ibom State are additionally deploying self-help strategies, together with preserving catch with ice blocks. This straightforward but efficient method considerably extends the freshness of the catch, lowering spoilage dangers.
Abraham Etukudo, 48, a fisherman in Ibaka River in Mbo Native Authorities Space of Akwa Ibom State, mentioned he skilled postharvest losses some years again. Nevertheless, with the brand new methodology, losses will not be as vital as they was.
“I used to have many losses some years again; most instances, earlier than I might return from the ocean the place I went for fishing, my catch would spoil, and even those I caught the earlier days,” Mr Etukudo mentioned. “However now, I am going fishing within the sea with an ice block; I put them in an outdated condemned freezer, put it within the boat and go fishing. That can assist protect all my sea catch.”
Vivian Egboro, a seafood supplier in the neighborhood, additionally mentioned she makes use of ice blocks to protect her contemporary seafood as a result of the world lacks a chilly room.
“Even when I need to ship this fish to Lagos or the northern a part of the nation, I take advantage of an ice block, not a cool room. The fish won’t spoil besides if you happen to don’t protect it properly or possibly depart it contained in the car for 3 to 4 days with out including new ice blocks,” she mentioned.
“I don’t expertise a lot spoilage of fish in current days, however we used to have it, and it all the time comes because of unhealthy roads,” she added.
One other fish supplier, Gbenga Joseph, preserves his fish by smoking them on hearth, utilizing firewood.
“I take care of dry fish, so every time I obtain the fish from the fishermen, I usually put them on hearth. It could take about two to 3 days to dry very properly. Then my prospects will come and choose them,” he mentioned.
“There’s nothing like a chilly room right here; everybody right here preserves their fish by both drying or sunning them,” Mr Joseph said.
Extra reporting by Kemi Adelagun. Infographics by George Kaduna. Multimedia by Lere Mohammed.
Assist for this reporting challenge was supplied by the Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Improvement (CJID).
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