Dr Adiya Ode is the Country Representative and Political Director of Propcom+, a £95m UK-funded climate-resilient agriculture and forestry programme in Nigeria.
In this interview with THE WHISTLER’s Nneka ASOGWA, Ode explains why Nigeria continues to lose an estimated 2 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually to avoidable post-harvest losses.
She discusses the interventions needed to improve storage, reduce losses and attract more investment into the country’s agricultural value chains. Excerpts…
Nigeria Loses Billions Of Naira In Post-Harvest Crop Losses Yearly. What Practical Measures Can Reduce These Losses, Improve Farmers’ Incomes And Strengthen The Food Supply Chain?
Post-harvest losses are really a challenge to the Nigerian farmer. If you look at that, the challenge is avoidable. That’s the tragedy of the whole thing. Just like you found out, it’s costing Nigeria quite a lot. So, it’s not just the personal cost to the farmer, it’s the cost to the economy.
I’m sure you would have seen that about 2 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP is lost every year as a result of post-harvest losses, and it’s avoidable.
So, you asked what we can do. Let’s look at the sources of the losses. A farmer produces, then he has to evacuate his produce to the market. He gets to the market. The market is an exchange venue, and it doesn’t happen automatically.
Sometimes you are able to exchange, sometimes you have to wait a while before you exchange. So, the farmer has to keep his produce there. Then whoever goes to buy it at the market also has to transport what he has bought from the market to wherever he’s going, to another market, to a processing facility, or to the ports, as it were.
So, at every stage of this chain, there are losses, and there are market failures that have caused those losses.
The farmer produces. How does he evacuate his produce? How does he aggregate his produce? If it’s a farmer farming 0.5 hectares, he probably doesn’t have a car, doesn’t have a vehicle, or doesn’t have a truck. He has to wait and pay for transportation. A lot of times, he’s waiting to sell before he can pay for transportation.
So, evacuation of the produce from the farm is a challenge, and that challenge can be addressed.
One of the things we have been doing is working with aggregators. These are buyers who pull together the produce from many different farmers.
A lot of times, they go to the farm gates, so they are saving the farmer that extra headache of transporting his goods. They also usually have their own transportation vehicles, so they are able to pull this together and promptly evacuate the produce from the farm. That way, the farmer avoids sitting on produce on the farm and having it go to waste.
But even if the aggregator gets the produce together, the roads that he will pass through do not exist. Our rural roads are atrocious. Any vehicle that is put on a rural road, I haven’t done the research, I don’t know if you have, but I don’t think that vehicle can last three years because of the state of the roads and the wear and tear, the suffering it has to go through.
So that is a challenge. If we can invest in our rural roads, and for this I’m speaking to the government, because rural infrastructure is a public good and it’s something that the government should invest in.
I know in the past we used to have DFRRI − Directorates of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure. We still have an agency that deals with this. If we are really interested in reducing post-harvest losses, we have to address the issue of rural roads so that farmers can evacuate their produce.
We also have the issue of transport infrastructure, like vehicles. Here, I think the private sector can be encouraged to come in and be given incentives to invest in transportation so that produce can be evacuated.
One of the things we have done over the past two years is invest in solar electric vehicles.
We’ve supported some women cooperatives to purchase electric trucks and electric tricycles, which the women run themselves. They drive them and are able to evacuate their produce and other farmers’ produce to the market.
Because the vehicles are not so big, they don’t have to wait for them to fill up, and they’re also able to manage them themselves. It really works, and we’re really proud of them. They’re working in Kano, and I hope that this can be copied and scaled up.
Apart From Transportation And Rural Roads, What Other Factors Contribute To Post-Harvest Losses In The Value Chain?
Something else is, we talk about taxes, we talk about the ease of transportation, we talk about the security of goods in transit. In the past, you had to pass through so many checkpoints and pay all sorts of taxes to be able to pass through, and deal with all sorts of agencies.
I know the tax reform earlier in the year was aimed at harmonising some of these taxes to reduce the onerous burden on transporters, as well as other people. I hope that they would resolve this because every state that you pass through, you have to pay taxes.
Every local government, you pay taxes. There are customs agents, there are all sorts of agencies on the road. Each point is a delay.
When you also think about the fact that they have to do security checks, which I don’t quarrel with, this increases the time spent on the road, leading to the produce deteriorating. The aggregator or the transporter, whoever it is, loses.
You also don’t really have a lot of access to insurance. I’m not even sure there is good transit insurance for agricultural produce. So, that is also a challenge. You come to Kano and you see loads and loads of rotten oranges, for instance. So that’s a loss as well.
The other thing is the cold chain. If we don’t have sufficient access to cold-chain for storage, you come to the market and you see perishable produce just sitting there. Of course, it’s going to go bad.
This also brings me, and I’m glad that you cover health, because it also brings us to what desperate traders do to preserve their produce. It’s impacting you and me. It’s impacting the public. We see so many cases of liver and kidney issues.
But I don’t know the extent to which NAFDAC and other regulatory authorities are supervising or inspecting to see what people are using.
I bought some garden eggs over the weekend from the market and they were really fresh. I was looking forward to eating them, but by the next day, they were black. I wondered, “How did this miracle happen?” But because they were not sprayed again the next morning with whatever chemical had been used to keep them looking fresh. These are some of the problems that we are having.
Again, cold storage, maintaining the cold chain, is absolutely important. When you bring produce to places of exchange, you have to keep it fresh.
You also have produce such as grains that must be preserved. When you see Dawanau Market in Kano, with miles and miles of warehouses, I always wonder what’s going on there. What are the rodents doing there? Because it’s like a rodent heaven.
If we can have good preservation techniques, tools and storage facilities that keep out pests and maintain grains and other produce in good condition, then we will reduce losses. We will also reduce the desperate measures people take to preserve their produce.
Policy is of course is very necessary. I talked about incentivising the private sector to invest. This is important. Implementation of policies and regulations around food safety is a companion to food preservation. You can’t do one without the other.
Processing is also very important. Especially now that Nigeria is coming into its own, we really have to move beyond the sale and export of primary produce. The sooner we can process our harvest, the longer we can preserve it.
If we have processing facilities, not just in factories and cities, but processing facilities as close to the farm as possible, that also helps. It reduces the weight we have to transport. It reduces the time left for storage. That’s really very important.
If Government Had Limited Funding For Interventions To Reduce Post-Harvest Losses, Where Must It Focus Such Interventions?
First of all, policy is the government’s responsibility. I would encourage the government, first and foremost, to create an enabling environment for the private sector to invest in post-harvest preservation. We also need infrastructure. I would encourage the government to invest in rural infrastructure and rural roads so that farmers can evacuate their produce.
I would also encourage the government to invest in technology that facilitates or eases processing and is easily accessible. Technology exists, even local technology. We have fabricators who can produce these things. I don’t believe in buying equipment. I believe in encouraging local industry so that it is sustainable.
The government should encourage the production of safe local technology and also encourage the private sector to invest in this area, so that processing facilities and transportation are available. One of the things, as you know, is that access to power is a challenge. That’s one of the things discouraging investment.
In the 21st century, power should not be a limiting factor. There are so many alternatives. There’s solar technology. If people can access solar technology, they can use it for simple processing and even transportation.
I strongly believe that the government can make solar technology accessible. If there are policies targeted at this, then more people can access solar technology. It’s a new technology and it eases the burden on the population. The government should invest in making solar technology accessible to everyone, but our power is erratic and it doesn’t support production that should make solar technology accessible.
Governments in other places have done it and succeeded. I don’t see why our government should not take advantage of this. I know we have the Rural Electrification Agency doing something, but they have been doing something for a long time. Now we want to see results. The government should sit up and face that responsibility.
Which Interventions Have Produced The Most Measurable Reduction In Post-Harvest Losses In Communities Where Propcom+ Works?
We’ve had a number of initiatives towards this. One that I want to immediately mention is working with private sector organisations, processors who aggregate farm produce and also work with out-growers.
We have a number of private sector organisations. Some of them are processors, some of them are seed companies. We worked with about 10 seed companies last year, and they had out-growers who produced seeds for them.
At the end of the day, they go to the farmers and aggregate the seeds. They are able to pay the farmers for them. It takes away a lot of burden from the farmers.
We also have worked with farmers who produce groundnut seeds. The companies aggregate the produce, buy it, and evacuate it to the factory. That sort of linkage helps connect farmers to the market, and it really facilitates the movement of produce.
We also worked with a not-for-profit organisation, and I’m particularly proud of this because it’s a women’s cooperative working in mechanisation, which is not a traditional women’s area. In fact, one of the women, a young woman in her early 20s, drives a combine harvester, which I’m really proud of.
We facilitated their access to solar-powered equipment, threshers and solar processing equipment, which they rent to farmers. They bring the equipment to your farm, help farmers thresh and process their produce, after which they can evacuate it.
Because the equipment is easily accessible and available, the farmer doesn’t have to wait or process by hand. So, that’s a really successful model that we’re quite proud of.
Farmers Complain About Seed Quality And Shelf Life Of Some Improved Varieties. What Role Do Seeds Play In Reducing Post-Harvest Losses?
Seeds are a big challenge for farmers, especially where to get good-quality seeds.
That’s one of the reasons we’ve been working with seed companies to develop climate-smart seeds. Seeds that are resistant to drought, resistant to flooding, high-yielding, early maturing, and also not vulnerable to early spoilage.
Speaking particularly about vegetables, last year, I’m happy to say that one of our partners in Kano started producing vegetable seeds in Nigeria.
They work with local farmers to produce the seeds, test the seeds themselves, and also sell them to other farmers. One of the issues with high-yielding seeds is that you have to plant the seed, not the fruit.
If you continue planting seeds obtained from the harvested fruit, the yield starts reducing. This is the same for many other crops and many other high-yielding seeds because the potency or vigour starts reducing with each successive generation. But people are forced to plant their harvested grains because they don’t have easy access to quality seeds.
One of the challenges in the space is seed certification. If I buy seeds, how do I know they are actually certified seeds? How do I know someone didn’t simply package ordinary grains?
We’re concerned about the certification of quality seeds because if farmers have access to genuine seeds, many of them will choose to plant certified seeds rather than recycled grains since they are assured of higher yields. The money invested in quality seeds comes back because the yield is higher.
Some Farmers Say High-Yield Tomato Varieties Spoil Faster Than Traditional Varieties. Why Is This So?
The thing with the tomatoes you talked about is that there isn’t sufficient information and awareness being given to farmers.
If you buy a particular seed variety, there are things you should do. There are practices that go along with those seeds.
If you are educated about them or given the right information by whoever is selling the seed, they should explain what inputs you need, what crop protection products go with that variety, and what management practices are required.
So, when you’re buying a seed, you know exactly what else you have to buy. You make the calculation with full transparency, knowing all the costs involved.
Even after planting, if there are practices you must follow to ensure the fruits don’t start cracking or spoiling prematurely, farmers also need to know that.
How Does Climate Change Affect Post-Harvest Losses Beyond Reducing Yields?
Climate change increases post-harvest losses through many pathways. One of them is flooding. When you talk about floods, we’re talking about enormous losses of food harvests. You can’t underestimate that.
We also have reduced predictability, and that’s another problem. This year, I’m not sure we’ve had too many cases of flooding yet, but I know the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) recently issued an advisory, and that’s as a result of climate change.
We also have late rains and unpredictable rainfall. The rains don’t come when they’re supposed to, or they come and stop just when farmers have planted. That’s also a challenge because what they’ve planted may never mature.
At harvest time, when you’re expecting sunshine, it starts raining. You can’t properly harvest or process your produce. That’s another challenge.
Also, when you have conditions like we’ve had over the past few days in Abuja, with continuous rainfall, you see the proliferation of certain pests and weeds. This also contributes to post-harvest losses.
Kano Recently Recorded Huge Tomato Losses Due To Pest Infestation. What Can Governments And Agricultural Organisations Do To Help Farmers Prepare For Such Outbreaks?
We need to increase awareness and improve access to information and protective practices that prevent pest infestations. Kano, for instance, has the Agricultural Development Programme, just like Kaduna has KADA.
These are the kinds of agencies that should be educating farmers and providing them with information.
We also have a number of organisations providing extension and e-extension services. They send information directly to farmers through their mobile phones.
If they expect a tomato blight or any other outbreak, they can alert farmers early enough. This is a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity.
For people who sell crop protection products, it’s an opportunity to provide both the products and the information farmers need. There is an incentive for the private sector to educate farmers.
Once farmers experience such losses once, they don’t want to experience them again. So, it’s not just the government. The private sector can also step in.
Are There Policies That Make It Harder For Farmers To Preserve And Sell Their Produce?
One is the burden created by multiple taxes, checkpoints and delays along transport routes. If you take a truckload of oranges from Benin to Kano, for example, you pass through numerous checkpoints and deal with different agencies.
Every state you pass through collects taxes. Every local government collects taxes.
Each stop creates delays, and every delay increases the likelihood that perishable produce will deteriorate before reaching its destination. While security checks are necessary, they also add to travel time. Reducing these bottlenecks and harmonising taxes would help reduce post-harvest losses.
What Opportunities Are Private Investors Overlooking In Nigeria’s Post-Harvest Value Chain?
One area is scanning for possible challenges and stepping in before they happen. There are also serious opportunities in processing.
Nigeria has a population of about 200 million people. That’s a huge market. We shouldn’t even be looking at food importation because we have so much food here. With minimal processing, we can take it to market. There are opportunities in mini processing facilities that can feed the nation. There are also opportunities in cold storage.
When you look at all the markets we have, even rural markets, establishing privately run cold-storage facilities where people can pay small amounts to preserve their produce is a major opportunity. Possibly the private sector has not fully taken advantage of that. There are also opportunities in rural transportation.
From Your Experience, Do Losses Occur More On The Farm, During Transportation, In Storage, Or When Farmers Cannot Find Buyers?
The losses occur all through the chain. We have losses on the farm, losses after the farm, and losses during transportation and storage.
Each point in the chain has its losses. Some may outweigh others, but I can tell you that everyone is paying a cost. From the person who plants the crop until the food lands on the table, there are losses all along the value chain.
(The Whistler)