Waste, Storage Facilities and Food Prices

The next food revolution is here: stemming the tide of food waste. Roughly 70 percent of the food produced in Nigeria never reach our plates. This is in contrast to the high amount of malnourishment and hunger amongst vulnerable sections of the population.

The shopping, cooking, and eating habits of every day consumers are responsible for the bulk of wasted food, which is actually good news—it means we have the power to make a significant and immediate change in the food waste equation.
Of course there are also big structural issues at play—from regulations that encourage grocery stores, market sellers and transporters to discard food prematurely due to quality issues, storage challenges or aesthetics reasons.

Recently traders at the boundary market between Kogi and Benue states have called on the states and federal government to enhance storage facilities for their food produce. A substantial amount of their products are lost as post harvest losses due to this problem. They travel several kilometers from the hinterland to the market with their farm products, and on a good day the market for yam, garri, cassava flour and tomatoes go well and they smile home, but on other not so good days, when the market go sour, the products, especially garri and tomatoes, are wasted for lack of storage facilities.

The traders who made their position known to the government when speaking to LEADERSHIP in Lokoja, yesterday, noted that for sometime now even at the expense of sacrificing other things to engage in farming, there is no encouragement from the government both at the local or national level.

The leader of the market women, Alhaja Junai Shaibu, who narrated the harrowing experience of what the traders go through every market day pointed out that the quick intervention of the governments for the traders will be the provision of storage facilities for their unsold products.

It is time we started reducing our food waste by adopting new ways e.g. purchasing directly from farmers, preservation by partially cooking, sun drying and other affordable ways we could use in reducing food waste footprint in our homes, lives and economy. This alone cannot solve the problem as storage still needs to be addressed by the government and investors in agriculture.

Renewable Energy Conferences and Farm Sales

Good morning people, it has been a little while. I hope everything has been going on well with your daily endeavors. A lot has been happening. There is a conference on Solar & Off-Grid Renewables West Africa 2016 been held in Accra Ghana. We are patitently waiting to hear all about the latest development from our delegate at the event. You can follow the conversation on twitter using the #SORWA16 and #AfricaPV hashtags. You can read more about the conference here

Meanwhile I came across this video of a Fish farm for sale along Ibadan express way. I am going to contact the uploader of the video to get more information. I cant help but think of the employment this site can generate, you guys could all tell me what you think.

Fulani, Falae and The Oldest Battle

I read with alarm and sadness that Fulani's have attacked the farm premises of Olu Falae in the Obaile residence of the elder statesman and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

According to Premium Times, about 10 Fulani herdsmen also attacked the farm of Falae, on Sunday, taking one of the security guards at the residence hostage. The security guard was later found dead on Thursday. His body was discovered by the police in a pool of water some miles away from Falae farm.

The matter was said to have been handled quietly by the police on the behest of the Falae family. The family reportedly deserted their house for fear that they will be attacked again. It would be recalled that the former SGF was last year kidnapped by some Fulani herdsmen, who are currently facing criminal prosecution for the abduction. Falae was, however, released by his abductors after paying N5 million ransom.

This constant battle between rogue Fulani men and farmers have been on the increase across the country. The whole of Plateau state and Benue are used to the constant battle between farmers and Fulani men. This has become a major problem that needs to be addressed by our policy makers. The agriculture community are aware of the importance of these nomads to our economy as intensive rearing of cattle are still above the level of sophistication displayed by most farms in Nigeria at the moment and with such large mass of land unused, that makes for perfect grazing grounds.

The problem is that Nigeria's grazing reserves have been systematically depleted or allocated to large corporations to use as farming lands. This combined with the rise in cattle rustling in the past years have made the Fulani's feel aggrieved and create a level of tension.

The Ministry of Agriculture would do the nation a massive favor in its push towards delivering milk to school students if we made the cattle and dairy industry an efficient entity. Grazing lands are a non-negotiable. Planting resistance and nutrient rich grazing plants like the alfalfa plant across vast grazing lands across the country would definitely help in sequestering the movements of these Fulani herdsmen. The battle between settlers and nomads is the oldest fight known to man. it can run deep and bloody so should not be ignored for much longer by the government. We need policies implemented to handle this situation.

My sympathies goes to those that were harmed or lost their lives during the attack on Chief Olu Falae's farm and hope the police would speedily conclude their investigations.

Have a good day.

KOA