Digital marketing has been seen as the solution to Nigeria’s $9 billion post-harvest food losses, which has become a leading cause of food security in the country, expert says.
Oluwaseun Olukumoro, spokesperson, Bellefu.com, defined post-harvest losses as the loss of agricultural produce after harvest, in terms of quantity and quality, resulting to poor market prices, storage, reduction in nutrient quantity and quality of the product among others.
“Post-harvest losses have significant nutritional, health, and financial impacts for both consumers and farmers, disproportionately affecting women, who are largely responsible for managing post-harvest drying, cleaning, and storage,” Olukumoro says.
“For rural families, many of whom already live on the edge of hunger, food loss means lost land, water, fertiliser and income for those who can least afford it,” he further says.
He says part of the solution to addressing the problem of post-harvest losses is the deployment of technology.
“Agricultural marketing covers the services involved in moving an agricultural product from the farm to the consumer,” he says.
“Numerous interconnected activities are involved in doing this, such as planning, production, growing and harvesting, grading, packing, transport, storage, agro and food processing, distribution, advertising and sale,” he adds.
He notes that companies operating in these sectors can now choose between traditional business outreach channels or online marketing practices.
He stresses that various businesses have taken up digital marketing strategies, and run a mix of both offline and online campaigns, while he adds that the technology adoption rate in the agriculture sector has been comparatively low.
Olukumoro adds that digitization and easy internet access has changed the face of farming forever and many in the industry are scrambling to keep up with the new methods available to keep them in touch with their customers.
He says digital marketing in agriculture will eliminate middlemen as farmers can directly contact the buyers, wholesalers and dealers, which according to him reduce the number of intermediaries or middlemen in the supply chain.
“It also results in better price realization and availability of crops,” he says.
“Farmers can now have greater and wider access to modern farming methods and techniques through online training and webinars,” he notes.
“This knowledge will help them increase their productivity. At the same time, if the farmer is provided adequate training, he or she might be able to share this knowledge with a wider audience in several vernacular languages by creating his or her blog or website and using social networking services to share it,” he explains.
He states that at the long-run digital marketing will be beneficial to farmers to reach out and be visible to a broad range of audiences.
“At the same time, they may come in contact with suppliers of post-harvest technologies such as transport, storing, and packaging,” he further says.
“In many cases, farmers have to transport their produce to local markets for them to be able to reach buyers. Digital marketing, however, puts the farmer and his produce on a global stage for any prospective buyer/customer to ‘see’,” he stresses.
Olukumoro notes that this is the gap Bellefu.com has come to fill, as it emerged as the first dynamic and unique online marketplace with several digital and online options for the world of agriculture to enjoy.
He says the platform is available as bellefu app on android and iOS, bellefu blog, bellefu online farmers’ radio, webinars – and a strong social media presence.
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