Innovation : How Farmers in Nigeria are Using Climate-Smart Techniques to Reduce Post-Harvest Losses.

Farmers in Nigeria Use Climate-Smart Techniques to Reduce Post-Harvest Losses. Approximately one third of all food produced in the world for human consumption is wasted. 

In sub-Saharan Africa, where food security is a huge concern, the majority of food waste occurs at the post-harvest level because of poor harvesting practices, lack of appropriate storage facilities and transportation, poor packaging materials, and product spillage. In Nigeria, tomatoes are an important food source, but nearly half of the tomatoes produced by smallholder farmers are lost each year. 

Post-harvest loss, which is exacerbated by climate change, contributes to food insecurity and reduces the income of smallholder farmers, processors, service logistics providers, and retailers. 

 Traditional efforts to improve food security have focused on increasing agricultural yields and introducing technologies to reduce post-harvest losses. However, the effects of climate change – including increased soil salinity, extreme temperatures, changes in moisture content, and the unavailability of suitable tomato seed varieties – have made it difficult to increase and sustain year-round tomato production. This is particularly concerning because by 2050, an estimated 60 percent increase in food production will be required to feed the global population.

Maize farmers get storage bags that help check post-harvest losses.

Maize farmers get storage bags that help check post-harvest losses. A new technology has been introduced in the region to help reduce maize farmers’ losses due to poor storage, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Ministry officials said maize farmers last year lost up to Sh15 billion post-harvest due to poor storage. The technology, Purdue Improved Crop Storage (Pics), is expected to allow farmers to store grain for up to five years without having to use any preservatives.Once tied properly, no pests can penetrate it. If any pests are inside the maize after packing it in Pics bags, they will be suffocated. Maize farmers get storage bags that help check post-harvest losses. .

Post-Harvest Losses in Horticulture Crops and the Importance of Clean Cold Chain Development in India.

Post-Harvest Losses in Horticulture Crops and the Importance of Clean Cold Chain Development in India.The objective of the workshop was to co-design the implementation of frameworks for the provision of clean and sustainable post-harvest food cold chain. 

 The latter is defined in the report "India's Third Agricultural Revolution- Doubling Farmers' Income through Clean Cold Chains" as an integrated and seamless network of refrigerated and temperature controlled pack houses, distribution hubs and vehicles used to maintain the safety, quality and quantity of food while moving it swiftly from farm gate to consumption centre. 

Such facilities, the report highlights, ought to be attractive to end users, civil society, government, policy makers and industry to ensure impact, legacy, and scalability.

Agribusiness: How to stop post harvest losses.

How to reduce losses after harvesting vegetables. Agribusiness has grown in leaps and bounds  globally. over the years. The most common vegetables and fruits grown  include kale, lettuce, cabbages, potatoes, carrots, onions, cucumber, broccoli, beans, peas, avocado, mangoes, oranges and others. 

 

These fruits and vegetables tend to get damaged when being harvested, while being handled, during storage, processing, packaging, transportation and marketing. They are delicate and tend to lose water even after being harvested.  Post harvest losses.

This causes the veggies  to  lose color and  weight, affecting the appearance and therefore the market value. To reduce  post harvest losses after harvesting vegetables, consider the following points

1) Avoid exposing harvested vegetables to high and low temperatures  kale, cabbages and any other leafy vegetable are made of thin leaves that when exposed to heat dry out quickly acquiring a yellowish color with moldy spots. 

Juicy fruits  tend to dry up quicker when exposed to heat. 

Keep your fruits and vegetables in a cool, dry place with good air conditioning. MORE

Agribusiness: How the Internet of things is solving the issue of food waste.

According to UN FAO data, approximately $1 trillion in produced crops is annually lost post-harvest. This includes the various stages — from farm, to shelf, to fork. Even in technologically advanced regions such as the EU, post-harvest losses for grains and cereals are often more than 10%, with higher percentages seen in developing countries in Africa or in industrialized Asia. 

These losses are incurred during raw material storage, processing — milling, for example — and distribution in the logistics chain. One company that is responding to the challenge of food waste with IoT technology is Centaur Analytics, the first full stack IoT company that provides real-time stored agri-products monitoring and protection solutions. 

They develop and market end-to-end solutions for the Internet of Things, focused on the quality and safety of stored goods. Their mission is to dramatically increase post-harvest yields and eliminate waste from farm to shelf. Storing crops is a tricky process. 

Most farmed crops are stored in massive quantities in big metal containers like silos, an environment that is susceptible to a range of challenges like moisture, temperature and insect infestation. Traditionally methods of managing these challenges have involved farmers physically visiting their silo or storage container in person by testing each one individually — not an exact science — and provide treatments. Insect infestation is particularly problematic. 

 As well as eating crops, insects increase the moisture levels within the storage containers, which can further spoil the crops. Bantas explained that treatment typically involved a fumigants such as phosphine which is administered over a set number of days, typically up to a week. 

 Fumigation is used for all kinds of crops: tobacco leaves, flowers, grain, rice , feeds, fruit fresh, died and so on, people have been fighting this product with fumigating gases but it has been without monitoring,which is where the problem lies. 

 The problem is that while fumigation can eradicate the problem, if the temperature of the container is too low, the dosage is incorrect or the duration of treatment too short, it can harden they insects and they mutate and grow into something stronger, making treatment ineffective. continue