HOW TO BOOST AGRIBUSINESS IN NIGERIA.

 

Agribusiness post Covid-19.

 Covid-19 meals on wheels project.

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covid19, agribusiness , agriculture , food security.

 

Covid 19 and impact on food and agriculture

The impact of COVID -19 on agribusiness in Nigeria.

How to use radio frequency identification for traceability in agribusiness.

Governments must play active role in food safety. Governments have an important role to play in food safety to ensure it gets the attention and investment it deserves, according to a senior food standards officer with the Codex Alimentarius secretariat.. This means that a government needs to have a strong food control system. For many countries this is still a challenge, they are still working toward having the appropriate infrastructure not only to establish regulations for food but to implement them and help food producers to know what they are supposed to do. They can also play a role in bringing together the different players and sectors along the food chain and making sure everyone is aware of the importance of food safety,” Cahill said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said every year unsafe food is responsible for thousands of deaths, which are all preventable. “This year’s World Food Safety Day is a reminder that we can all play a role in making food safer. From the time food is grown and transported to when people are shopping and preparing meals each of these is a chance to prioritize food safety. “Food production is a chain of events, it starts even before the farm as some of the inputs such as animal feed also contribute to the safety of food. We have to look at what happens at the farm, what happens after that in terms of harvesting, what happens then in terms of processing and transformation of the crops or animal products and then the transportation and retail sectors. At all of those points there is an opportunity for our food to be contaminated and become unsafe. Producers must keep hazards or contaminants out of food or make sure they stay at as low a level as possible, said Cahill. “So whether you are growing crops or rearing animals, good hygiene and biosecurity are important, good husbandry and veterinary practices and also good environmental waste management so you are producing food in an environment which minimizes the possibility for that food to be contaminated,” she said Adopted from food safety news.

How the poultry industry can use COVID-19 to its advantage.

How the poultry industry can use COVID-19 to its advantage.The novel coronavirus pandemic offers a number of lessons that could be to the long-term benefit of chicken and egg producers. When we emerge from the novel coronavirus crisis, the world, including the poultry industry, won’t go back to business as usual - that ought to be clear for all of us. What is the COVID-19 pandemic teaching us and how can be prepare for the post-virus world? We all make a number of assumptions about how the world is, or how it should be, but the current crisis requires us to question these assumptions if we are to flourish in a post-virus world. Nothing may ever be the same again, and it is worth thinking about how businesses might be run differently. There are a number of key areas that are worth consideration: Train and retrain In the COVID-19 world, those that have been home schooled start with an inherent advantage. Home working has also brought into focus the need to be fully computer literate. Are your employees fully computer skilled? We have been catapulted into a world where traditional education models are in trouble, and this could make continuous learning – online – essential, making educated staff the winners in the employment and salary stakes. The virus lockdown offers the ideal opportunity for the poultry and other industries to embrace courses, new languages and skills, and gain certification. Universities and institutes may be the obvious ports of call, but platforms such as Linkedin, YouTube and Wechat also offer free training and unbeatable opportunities. Every company’s maxim needs to be – don’t return to work post-corona without an increased skill set. Change is good What are the changes that your business could adopt to make it more effective and more resilient? Might robots in processing plants be the answer, or employing augmented- or virtual-reality to train specialized employees? Could machine vision and artificial intelligence be used to make better decisions in real time about our chickens, products or market positions? What will be the big investments in the post-COVID-19 world? What are you planning to change? #foodsecurity #foodpreservation “

. Food security and safety using solar dryers for preservation.

Food security and safety by food preservation using solar dryers. The challenge brings a solution to curbing food waste by processing produce to extend shelf life and obtain a zero waste culture.

 Did you know 1/3 of food produce is lost or wasted along the value chain? Did you know food processing will curb food waste and loss? Did you know processing can be done at affordable prices with locally fabricated machines/equipment? Did you know harnessing the power of the sun is a cheap method of processing and preservation?

 

The good news is this solar dryers can be used for a variety of products and local fabrication is a cheap option. See how its used to process fish

 The products are processed  in hygienic conditions by properly kitted operators ensuring food safety. The processed foods are taken to food tanks/food banks for onward distribution by food vendors using the food on wheels model.

       

. #COVID-19 #Coronavirus

Lagos set to sanitize the red meat value chain.(Lagos meat reform)

The Lagos State Government is poised to improve the red meat value by implementing a 3-pronged strategy called A.T.M. 

This refers to specific interventions in various sectors of the value chain to ensure only wholesome beef is sold to the populace. The A=abattoir, where its mandatory to get a certificate of fitness and wholesomeness accompanied with a meat receipt for every carcass. The registered abattoirs are graded into 3 categories:the A,B and C. 

 The A grade is the fully mechanized line, the B is the semi mechanized line while the C is the conventional floor slaughtering. 

The T= transportation: only refrigerated Eko meat vans are authorized to move carcasses to markets. This is ensure that carcasses get to markets in hygienic conditions. 

The M= market, where beef is sold in clean hygienic markets with properly kitted butchers. 

 The aim of the project is to  1)Promote the red meat value chain by providing wholesome and hygienically processed beef for the populace.

 2)To boost beef processing to international standards to facilitate export opportunities and foreign investment into the value chain. 

 The purpose is to ensure food safety and improve the health of the populace by ensuring only certified animals are slaughtered to make wholesome beef available in our markets. 

  Lagos set to sanitize the red meat value chain.(Lagos meat reform) The implementation of the strategies will be grouped as immediate, intermediate and long term. Lagos wants to redefine the red meat value chain by standardizing its slaughtering, processing and marketing to ensure wholesome beef is available and that products are traceable.

Linking of approved slaughter houses and abattoirs to the markets being supplied through the Eko refrigerated meat vans. 

 Implementation: 1) Abattoirs supplying various markets are identified and classified using the meat vans. 

 2) Butchers in such abattoirs are identified, linked to the market they supply using a color tag/code(meat receipt).

 3)Butchers are issued veterinary meat hygiene certificate for health and wholesomeness after inspection of carcass by veterinary officers. 4) Butchers are given certificates with meat receipts for their respective vendors. 5) The butchers / vendors with certificates and receipt load products into coded Eko refrigerated meat vans en route to specified markets.

THE BIRDPRENEUR.

BIRDPRENEUR. Nigerian poultry production faces three main problems: lack of financial resources, reliance on old knowledge, and no connection to a market to sell its product. To help solve these issues Michael Iyanro founded BirdPreneur. Iyanro and his wife came up with the idea for their start-up one night watching television. “We were watching a television program and saw that the Nigerian population has grown to 198 million people,” says Iyanro. “We started thinking about what it will be like in 2050 and what the food requirements will be.” His childhood experiences of raising chickens with his mom led him to base the company on poultry. HOW IT WORKS The start-up not only educates Nigerian farmers on the technologies available locally, but also trains them on smart farming techniques, such as using resources more efficiently, to better grow food and make their farming practices effective. Individuals are identified through farmer associations in rural areas. Sign up

GENE EDITING AND PIG CASTRATION.

GENE EDITING AND PIG CASTRATION. Male piglets used for pork production are routinely castrated to improve the quality of meat for consumers.

Castration gets rid of boar taint, an unpleasant odor and unsavory taste in the meat. For decades, castration has been done surgically. But new breeding technology can produce male piglets that never reach puberty.

 Tad Sonstegard is the chief scientific officer of Acceligen, a company that focuses on genetic improvement in food animals. He says these piglets will come from the company DNA Genetics. "Those males will have had to have been rescued from being infertile, and then they would just breed sows that also had been rescued and the offspring between the breeding of those two rescued genetic lines would result in sterile males and females, we believe," he says.

"Those are what would be sold from the multiplier sites out to the swine producers." The technology will make a piglet’s life a little easier – and the producer’s as well. GENE EDITING AND PIG CASTRATION.

Pesticides, human health, and food security.

Pesticides, human health, and food security. The worldwide population is projected to increase to 9 billion by 2050 (United Nations 2015). To accommodate this increase, food production will necessarily need to increase as well. However, new agricultural land is limited, so sustainable production and increasing productivity of existing agricultural land is an important aspect to addressing global food security (Popp et al. 2013). Food security has been described as a condition of humanity “…when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (Food and Agriculture Organization 1996). Increases in the terrestrial agricultural production of food and fish farming will be necessary to ensure adequate food availability, but this is only part of the larger concept of food security that also comprises food access, utilization, and stability (Food and Agriculture Organization 2006). Given that there is limited additional land available for agriculture and sites for fish farming coupled with increasing economic pressures to produce agricultural commodities for industrial purposes, including fiber and biofuels, strategies to increase agricultural yield will need to be used to meet the increase in food demand for the immediate future . For the near and foreseeable future, pesticides may be an important component of a comprehensive strategy to increase crop yield by preventing both pre and postharvest loss to pests.“Pesticides are substances used to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest ranging from insects, animals and weeds to microorganisms” (Grube et al. 2011), but inadvertent exposure to pesticides may adversely affect human health. Glyphosate, an herbicide linked to cancer by California state scientists and the World Health Organization is the active ingredient in Roundup, the Monsanto weed killer that is the most heavily used pesticide ,has been found to leave residue in food thus posing health risks. Each year, more than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on American crops, primarily on “Roundup-ready” corn and soybeans genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. But when it comes to the food we eat, the highest glyphosate levels are not found in products made with GMO corn. Increasingly, glyphosate is also sprayed just before harvest on wheat, barley, oats and beans that are not genetically engineered. Glyphosate kills the crop, drying it out so that it can be harvested sooner than if the plant were allowed to die naturally.

New Australian Study Shows GM Crops Cause Leaky Stomachs in Rats.

New Australian Study Shows GM Crops Cause Leaky Stomachs in Rats.A ground breaking new study from Australian experts has shown that so-called “Bt proteins”, produced by some GM crops, may not be as safe as previously assumed. Any two cells that line the stomach are normally held tightly against each other to form a “tight junction”. This stops any bacteria, viruses or food particles from leaking out from the stomach into the tissues of the body. The study found that the rats fed the GM corn had gaps in their tight junctions. This is called “poor apposition”. On average, this was five times greater in rats fed the GM corn diet. Poor apposition should not occur in normal, healthy stomachs. Yet every stomach section seen in rats fed the GM diet had these gaps between a number of cells. Dr. Judy Carman, one of the lead scientists involved in the study, said: “This means that there is a risk that eating GM maize could cause leakage of substances from the stomach and therefore increase the risk of developing allergies, or infections from the microbes in the food you eat or the water you drink.” In addition, the lining of the stomach has microscopic pits in it. Cells in the pits produce mucus to protect the stomach from stomach acid. The bottom of each pit divides into two long, straight glands. These glands produce stomach acid to help digest food. While the researchers saw some dilated (i.e. swollen) glands in rats fed the GM diet and those fed the non-GM diet, the rats fed the non-GM diet had smaller swellings and the cells lining the glands looked normal. In contrast, the glands in the GM-fed group were much more swollen, they often contained debris or mucus, and the cells lining the glands were often abnormal. For example, some cells were stretched or longer than they should have been. More than six times as many rats had glands that were both swollen and lined with elongated cells in the GM-fed group. While every rat on the GM diet showed at least one gland that looked like that, none of the rats fed the non-GM diet showed this pathology.

Synthetic meats are on their way, and our farmers are going to be left behind.

Synthetic meats are on their way, and our farmers are going to be left behind.Fake’ animal proteins are set to disrupt world markets – and much faster than our agriculture industry is anticipating, argues food strategist Dr Rosie Bosworth.

Campylobacter in poultry: An elusive pathogen.

Campylobacter in poultry: An elusive pathogen. Campylobacter — primarily Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli — frequently colonize the intestinal tract of domestic poultry at high levels. The bacterium is well adapted to the avian host and, despite extensive colonization, it produces little or no overt disease in poultry. That makes it difficult to detect and control in live birds. Despite its insignificance for poultry health, Campylobacter is a leading cause of foodborne gastroenteritis in humans worldwide.The poultry reservoir, especially broiler meat, is the most commonly recognized source for human Campylobacter. Campylobacter is, in general, highly prevalent on poultry farms, but the prevalence varies by region, seasons and production types, with reported Campylobacter-positive flocks ranging from 2% to 100%. Once a broiler flock is infected with Campylobacter, the majority of birds become colonized within a few days, and the overall within-flock prevalence reaches very high levels by processing age, leading to increased carcass contamination. A unique feature of Campylobacter ecology in poultry is that birds younger than 2 to 3 weeks of age are almost never colonized by the organism in commercial production settings, which implies that young birds have a biological mechanism for colonization resistance. If the reasons for this colonization resistance are revealed, they could be used to design effective strategies to prevent birds from getting infected.

One- on -one care for pigs ensures better pig health status on farm .

Taking time to walk the pens, make eye contact with each pig and pull the sick ones for individual care seems to conflict with the basic tenets and efficiencies of population medicine.One-on-one pig care means to make sure to look at every pig every day — and that we evaluate them essentially from tail to snout — to try to identify any potential problems that pig may have as quickly as possible. The approach involves three basic steps: Identifying the at-risk pig, being specific about its symptoms and effectively communicating the situation to others in the operation. Practically speaking, the process begins with spotting the outlier — the pig that simply strikes you as somehow unusual. Farmers shoulld walk through the barn to develop a pattern as they go through each pen, to make sure they get an opportunity to look at every pig. Basically, looking for any of the clinical signs that the pig isn’t normal such as For example: 1)Is he coughing?. 2)Does he have diarrhea? 3)Is he gaunt and not eating? 4)Is there nasal discharge?. 5)Does he appear stiff or lame when he moves? The next step will be to institute individual treatment protocols with an injectable antibiotic — typically already in place and specific for each farm and for each flow and system — can be called into use right away and used under veterinary supervision. Early intervention is really the key as we look at individual pig care,because we know that if we treat a pig later in the course of the disease, we have poorer response to treatment so if we can treat the pig earlier, we can have a better response. Research has shown that on farms with low health status, training caretakers to identify and treat sick pigs at an early stage of disease can improve growth and productivity during the all-important nursery and growing periods.

Food is the new Internet.

Why food is the new Internet. We don’t need to feed the world, we need to get smarter about food. The Industrial food system built in the 60s and 70s has left us simultaneously fat and starving and it’s time for it to die.

There’s an opportunity for smart young entrepreneurs to build a new smart food system that supplies the natural, local food people are demanding.

Farmland is available, new technologies have created new possibilities and investors are flooding into the sector.

 Kimbal Musk and his personal mission to remake the American food system in Silicon Valley’s image.

 Kimbal Musk made his money in tech with his brother, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and sees agriculture as ripe for revolution. He’s fond of calling food “the new internet.”

Technology: the future of agriculture.

Invest in new technology, not bigger farms, to make profits in agribusiness. The drive to get big in agribusiness is leaking money from most ventures,experts have opined that this drive to get big or get out of agribusiness is the wrong approach. 

 Agribusiness has massive profit potential but the gains of the business is in investing in technology,to be profitable today producers still need to get bigger, but real gains come with investing seriously in agricultural technology, and not simply expansion or farm enlargement. Farmers need strategies to use technology especially precision agriculture ,use of drones,sensors and most importantly use genetic or bio-engineering techniques. 

 The goal to feed the ever increasing population has to be with smart agricultural practices,using technology to boost production, preservation and proper distribution to ensure farm produce is not lost or wasted. The use of technology to foster farms will not be limited to production but to the entire chain if profit and food security is to be achieved. 

 Agriculture with technology(agritech) is the way forward for agribusiness,farmers need to push the bar with innovative technologies which can be done individually or as a group or better still there can be a call for investors in form of partnerships. more

Agritech innovations for food security and safety.

The smart pot has sensors that detect the status of a plant, like whether it’s receiving enough water and sunlight, or if soil conditions are optimum. Even though Greenopia is catering to smaller segment, its influence on the plant cultivation is interesting. 

 Food packaging and transport is an important part of the food chain,food must be delivered fresh and valuable. The majority of food waste that arises in the value chain is simply because of lack of adequate preservation and packaging technique to ensure the food is delivered fresh. 

 The rural farmers and small holder farmers that produce majority of food shipped out lack all these innovations and end up losing money due to waste as a result of spoilage of food.The innovations in this area must be cheap ,readily available and simple and easy to operate. 

 In California ,purfresh is addressing some of the challenges ; purfresh reduce decay, reduce pathogens, control ripening, and enhance food safety all at once .

Purfresh doesn’t use any chemicals to solve these challenges rather they make use of the power of ozone. Ozone (O3) oxidizes decay causing & pathogenic microbial that results in reducing decay and it also removes Ethylene resulting in controlling the ripening of fruits.

IoT, Big Data & Smart Farming is the Future of Agriculture.

The farming industry will become more important than ever before in the next few years,simply because the world needs to produce 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2006 in order to feed the growing population of the Earth, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

 The food security challenge has made farmers and agricultural companies turn to the Internet of Things for analytics and greater production capabilities.See 

 The IoT will push the future of farming to the next level by using smart agriculture ,which is already becoming more popular among farmers. High tech farming(agritech) is quickly becoming the standard mode of operation especially with the advent of agricultural drones and sensor. 

 Farmers have already begun employing some high tech farming techniques and technologies in order to improve the efficiency of their day-to-day work. For example, sensors placed in fields allow farmers to obtain detailed maps of both the topography and resources in the area, as well as variables such as acidity and temperature of the soil. They can also access climate forecasts to predict weather patterns in the coming days and weeks. 

 Farmers can use their smartphones to remotely monitor their equipment, crops, and livestock, as well as obtain stats on their livestock feeding and produce. They can even use this technology to run statistical predictions for their crops and livestock. Drones have become an invaluable tool for farmers to survey their lands and generate crop data. More

#Agribusiness #drones #future #Technology #Food safety

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY IN LAGOS.

 

 The poultry industry is well grounded in Nigeria with an estimated worth of over 100 billion Naira. There are a large number of commercial players and also small holder farmers in the sector most of which are located in the south-western part of the country,with close proximity to Lagos state. 

 There is a large market for poultry products in the country as evidenced by the 1.2 million tonnes of products smuggled into the country annually,the recent ban on imported poultry products has opened up more markets for home-grown products.

 A series of “megatrends” will permanently reshape agribusiness as the world’s producers and industry stakeholders re-calibrate to tackle the challenges of feeding 9 billion people in 2050, reports Christopher Nolan Sr., managing director at global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.C. (PwC). The PwC’s top five global megatrends include:

1) Demographic shifts. 

2) Shift in global economic power. 

3) Accelerating urbanization 

4). Resource scarcity 

5)Evolving technology. 

 Lagos with a population of about 21 million people with majority in middle and upper class who show preference for poultry products,the state fits perfectly into the mega-trend that will shape agribusiness. 

We have the population,(numbers) more people are moving to Lagos, we practice urban-agric and also incorporate greenhouse and biocrop technology. 

 The state itself has commercial farmers and small holder farmers in the poultry sector churning out large numbers of chicken and eggs .

The state with a vision to be Africa's mega city and global economic financial hub has dedicated zones and areas where poultry farms are domiciled. The state has invested heavily in the poultry sector with poultry estates in Ikorodu,Ojo ,farm settlements in Badagry and a training school in Epe. 

 The state with a policy thrust to eradicate poverty through infrastructural renewal and development recently embarked on an empowerment programme where cages,poultry equipment,eggs and suitable land was allocated to poultry farmers to upscale their level of production .

 The federal government with the Agricultural transformation agenda to increase crop production and also to create value added food processing industries as a means to reduce food imports and create jobs, has given the state a platform to call for private sector participation in the poultry value chain alongside other 22 agricultural chains. 

 Investments into the poultry industry in the country recently got a boost with a Multi-Net group leading with plans to establish a farm and also the African development bank injecting 34.5 billion naira to boost the agricultural sector. 

 A partnership between the government and a Portuguese company to establish a feed mill in the country is on going.( pls check earlier posts for details of these investments.)

 Investors in the poultry value chain can look into these areas; 

1) Processing plant: many of the smuggled products are processed ,indicating the preference for more processed poultry.

 A processing plant can process poultry as chicken sausages, canned chicken, processed frozen, stewed or fried.

 The introduction of new processed products will not only be very profitable but more jobs will be available as more chicken will be in demand. 

 2) Egg powder plant; investors can look into this area, egg powder is very important in so many industries and establishment of such will also increase egg sales. The state is embarking on a school feeding programme, where eggs will be part of the menu. 

This programme itself demands more eggs to be produced ,and also the eggplant will compliment this effort to ensure that eggs are always available,by extending the shelf-life. 

There are seasons where there is egg glut,the egg powder plant will solve this problem and add more economic value to it.

 3) Production is another point of investment: we are calling for investors to revamp the industry in terms of more production. This will be traced to the onset of production. 

There are partnerships with various hatcheries with various breeds in the country,however new and well established breeds can be introduced into the country, to add to what is on ground and also create a platform for breeding. Breeding centers can be established to fashion- out how to get our own highly productive and hardy breed.

 4) Waste management: investors can look into the bio-gas plant to generate electricity and gas or to process as fertilizers which can benefit farmers. 

5) Production of fashion accessories: feathers can also be processed and sold as fashion accessories.The blood and fat can also be processed and incorporated into animal feed. 

6)Transportation : investors can look into cooling vans,trucks and buses. This is to ensure that the products get to the market in good condition.The transportation of live birds to markets is another area of investment.