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.

WATER RUNS DRY...

Good morning, this is to hoping everyone had a refreshing and enjoyable Easter holidays. Its been a week since we posted up the press release for the Biogas Project we embarked on in Rije community of Kuje. I felt it was only right to keep those of you that showed interest in the news article a follow up into the process and our progress thus far.

Our technical partners from Cotonou have arrived. The Franco –Anglo barrier continually been stretched into a blur as we communicate. The biggest set-back thus far has been the challenges with the water. We decided to dig a ground –water borehole which hasn’t looked like a splashing success. On first trials the water supply has been stuttered at best. We would continue to find a solution to the borehole situation meanwhile the engineers have started digging the ground and making preparations for a bio-digester tank.

The next challenge for us now is building the actual bio-digester tank. We are in process of searching for a reliable metal work construction contractor to help us build the tank. We prefer this over the plastic types used in a lot of the foreign manufactured tanks. They are a lot more durable, robust and resilient than their foreign counter parts therefore we don’t mind spending a bit more. Never under-estimate the possibilities of a rodent infestation and how quickly they can chew through plastic. I have included some random images of all the works so far. Enjoy and please leave a comment or email us with any questions or ideas you want to contribute to making Rije Community build its own electricity grid.
-KOA

Kuje Community Solves Energy Problems With Innovative Waste Management

The off-grid community of Rije in Kuje Area Council Abuja, have an extra reason to be hopeful towards the future as a social enterprise initiates a waste to energy project in their community.

Ajima Farms and General Enterprises Nigeria Limited has embarked on the mission of solving the energy challenges facing off-grid rural communities. This mission is currently been achieved by the launch of their Waste-2-Watts Off-Grid solution in partnership with The United States African Development Foundation (USADF) under the Power Africa Challenge. The project would provide electricity, water and bio-gas cooking stoves all powered by the agricultural wastes generated around Kuje which happens to be the hub of farming activities in Abuja.






The project manager, Miss Fatima Oyiza Ademoh and her team of young experts in an interview with the newsmen stated that providing cheap and clean electricity to the community will improve so many aspects of their lives but more importantly it will boost their agricultural productivity because farming is their major source of income. The electricity will be used to process and preserve some of their agricultural produce, boast their productivity and spur several business ventures.’’ She noted.

Ajima Farms would provide bio-gas cooking stoves to help tackle issues of using fossil fuels and firewood which the villagers currently source by cutting down economic trees like shea butter to cook. The project would actively engage the youths in the community during the construction of the bio-gas plant and also trained to manage and operate the biogas technology.

The chief of Rije community, Mr Ibrahim Atakunyamwa thanked the company for choosing Rije to start-off this project while promising to secure and maintain the facilities adding that the project was a step in the right direction for his community.He said the project was a divine intervention after waiting so long for the government to provide such amenities but yielded no result.
``This organization came to us last year and promised to embark on this project but we didn’t believe it will come to reality because many have come with similar promises without yielding any result.
``We will make sure we secure all the facilities to be used for the project and will sensitize our women on the dangers of deforestation and climate change.’’ The chief said.

Ajima farms plans to expand this project to other off grid communities across Abuja and the country. Energy poverty is a massive challenge faced by the country, Kuje alone has 47 off grid communities while the amount of wastes dumped into landfills across the country continues to rise. This project would help address this challenges with their innovative approach to waste management

Waste, Energy and Green Days

The colour of Monday is green. The prospect of a new working week and getting productive has always coloured my Monday so.It has always been green for me. Today I ha extra reason for feeling very green. I spent the best part of yesterday researching into agricultural waste the impact of landfilling and the potential it holds for alleviating the energy poverty in this county.

Energy poverty is a real. I was not one to consider it in detail until I started researching into agricultural waste and how it can be handled. Experts in energy matters that Nigeria has one of the highest cases of energy poverty in the world while there lies a massive potential to convert waste to energy and help alleviate our energy challenges in this country. Agriculture is an activity that always produces a large amount of waste particularly in animal husbandry. A poultry farm with a thousand birds would produce half a tonne of waste in a day. We have traditionally only used this waste as a source of fertilizer on the farms but with recent advances in converting biomass to energy, agricultural waste would suddenly be viewed in a whole new spectra.

Biofuels seem as viable options to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and providing electricity and cooking fuels to communities that are facing chronic energy poverty. The impact of electricity in developing a community is well documented. Having an alternative to the traditional sources of energy is crucial. Agriculture when done right can become an invaluable tool of development. My yesterday was green and I hope for a future is green in so many ways.

KOA