Renewable energy is becoming an increasingly important alternative source of energy in the agricultural sector which is why Hungary has revealed plans to build a new carbon-neutral greenhouse-filled farming city that will be powered by renewable energy sources, a development Nigeria can learn from.
Despite its huge agricultural potentials, Nigeria easily losses one third of its agricultural crops to either total lack of energy or unreliable electricity, a problem renewable energy can easily solve because its better alternative since its relatively cheaper, non-exhaustible and environmental friendly source of energy.
Hungary, a country with an average population of 10 million people is proposing a €1 billion (£877 million) agricultural center which cover 330 hectares – equivalent to 500 football pitches for the border between Hungary, Austria and Slovakia.
According to Hungry’s ministry of agriculture, the new region will be home to a complex of greenhouses for the year-round cultivation of herbs and vegetables such as aubergines and tomatoes. It will also be the location of “Europe’s largest onshore fish farm”, as well as the requisite cold storage and logistics facilities.
The settlement will be carbon neutral, meaning that the carbon dioxide produced in its construction and over its lifetime will be offset or eliminated entirely.
Hungary’s minister of agriculture István Nagy told Bloomberg that the development would signal an “epoch change for agriculture” as German developers FAKT and energy providers EON are collaborating with the Hungarian government on the project.
EON will be supplying the renewable energy to power these farms. This will be mainly in the form of solar and biogas, reported Bloomberg. Geothermal plants, a form of sustainable power that uses energy from the earth, will be used to provide cooling.
“Sustainable, reliable and yet affordable energy solutions are essential for shaping the living and working spaces of the future.” EON director Alexander Fenzl told Bloomberg.
About 1,000 homes for workers will be located in a new residential area, complete with a kindergarten and elementary level school, as well as shops and hotels.
“With the project we want to set a standard for the sustainable integration of work and living in Europe,” said FAKT CEO Hubert Schulte-Kemper.
The development in Hungry holds much lesson for Nigeria whose painful wastage is not limited to the fruit alone but also include livestock, vegetables and other agricultural products as a result of lack of energy in the country.
Over the years, Nigeria produces so much food crops but most of them are lost during harvest and others are lost as a result of poor handling and poorer storage facilities. So much emphasis had been placed on intensive land clearing, fertilizer distribution and other inputs, at highly subsidized costs with very little or no attention paid to energy demand in the Agricultural sector.
Whereas, no matter the tonnage of food farmers produce, if are unable to store them or add value to this food product by partial or full processing, there will still be food shortage and scarcity.
Nigeria’s main sources of electricity which could have provide solutions are not producing sufficient energy to meet the country’s demand. And for many decades, homes, businesses, industries and farmers have faced the big challenges when accessing electricity as Farmers require nearly continual energy to increase farm produce.
Data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed the contribution of the agricultural sector waned to 21.91 percent from 26.15 percent percent in Q4 2018.
Stakeholders have emphasised that Renewable energy will be key to Nigeria’s economy which needs quick and stable growth over a few decades if it is to create jobs for its 21 million unemployed citizens and lift 87 million people out of extreme poverty.
