Abstract
Fulfilling the food demand of an increasing population remains a major concern, locally and globally, more than one-third of food is lost or wasted in postharvest operations. Reducing this loss can result in a sustained solution to increase food availability, reduce pressure on natural resources, reduce global warming and heat and other gasses generated by piles of wasted food, eliminate hunger and improve farmers’ livelihoods. The global population is expected to grow to about 10 billion people by the year 2050, and about 70% extra food production will be required to feed them. Most of this population rise is expected to be attributed to developing countries, several of which are already faced with challenges of hunger and food insecurity.
Nigeria
Nigeria is currently faced with challenges at different value chains across commodities in the agriculture sector. Most importantly, access to finance/working capital, weak access to the premium market, modern and advanced storage facilities, logistics, innovative/branded packaging services, lack of irrigation facilities forcing some farmers to crop/farm once annually at the onset of rains etc. all of which are interdependent and if one area is negatively affected it can hamper the operations of the other aspects of the value chain. As a developing country, with an increasing population, these factors have to be taken into cognizance in order for appropriate measures and structures to be put in place.
The Nigerian agricultural activity is largely dominated by small-scale farmers and traders and recently a growing number of commercial producers and off-takers. There is a demand for storage and processing which can be met and sufficiently operated. The risk of setting up facilities can be borne through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) as such risks can be handled by the private sectors as they are in the best position to operate and manage the risk, therefore, the Federal Government should mitigate such risk by creating good enabling policies, financial policies for the growth of private sectors and economic growth should be overall in view.
How can we attain success at post-harvest management?
Effectively create and manage silo operations across states in the federation. Silo complexes that have been created and out of which a number of them are under-utilized or lack essential equipment to fully carry out standard operation should be further addressed for refurbishment or rehabilitation. My view towards this; is for the silo complexes to be fully managed and operated by the private sector depending on if the Federal Government has no binding agreement with a third party. More complexes should be considered and strategically situated in close proximity to farm activities.
If we rehabilitate or create more silos how can we then address the quantity of the grains or other commodities that is to be stored? This is where data is needed. There will be a need for a structured database system to be in place. With a database collation system, we can be able to make concrete decisions and address rising challenges in the future. Data is what will enable us to know and specify the number of smallholder farmers who produce a type of commodity, quantity at harvest periods, quality of their commodities, and issues specifically pertaining to each individual smallholder or to a region/cluster. There is a lot more that could be done with the database systems; these data could be structured, refined, modified, and used to create new approaches to agricultural practices. At this progressive stage, we can make informed decisions and all stakeholders in the agriculture sector can be able to make informed decisions too. Hence, leading to food sufficiency, price stability, and market access. Database collation and management should be sourced from the private sector companies who engage in close communications with all categories of farmers/producers and encourage the upcoming companies to engage in this in order for all stakeholders to have a win-win situation. If we want to work with a smooth administration in attaining successful post-harvest management, then we need to consider database systems first, this is the curriculum or baseline to help achieve the objective we want. We can monitor losses, causes, address them and develop new alternatives to avert such issues.
Therefore, procurement of the commodities in view should be considered. This can be done in so many ways. After putting all smallholder farmers in clusters we can be able to move all their commodities to the warehouse systems or silo complexes for storage pending the time these commodities are to be traded. We want the farmers to be able to meet with yield expectations and that is a lot of concern for the farmer to tackle, after which the farmer has successfully tackled such issue, there is need to be a source in which such farmer(s) can then access credible markets for their commodities; this is where we have companies or sourcing companies who stand in the gap to ensure this is done — Helping smallholder farmers’ to trade their commodities to buyers. This same process of procurement could be applied and adopted by commercial farmers. This would reduce ridiculous transactions cost which has been happening from the farmers' end and buyers end. Leveraging technology solutions can help reduce this cost by 70%. Therefore, good database systems lead to steady procurement of commodities then leading to reduced transaction costs leading to strong liquidity in the commodities ecosystem.
Infrastructure development has hindered or stifled the development of the sector. Huge costs that farmers face in terms of storage and logistics when moving commodities to market can be eased upon. Thereby, ensuring that these costs are erased and leading to liquidity in the commodity exchange or ecosystem. With these in place, post-harvest management can be attained leading to food sufficiency and participation of other private sector players.
Lastly, we should begin to encourage involvement in the sector, in diverse areas like packaging, processing. If storage capacity is top-notch, I think we can begin getting it right in areas of packaging, processing, and marketing.
My view on addressing the gaps in production and losses. I believe if we have all these in place along with other significant factors raised by other members we can be able to monitor and keep in check the production capability of farmers (both small and large scale), we can be able to fast-track development in the agricultural sector using modern sophisticated equipment for storage and employing technology to make transaction activities faster in the sector. I believe this can initiate a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved. Thank you for reading.
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