In this interview, PATRICIA PESSU, the Executive Director, Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), speaks on a wide range of issues, including the Institute’s mandate to drive research into better management and storage of food harvests in Nigeria and its new and soon-to-be-launched innovations, which run on solar energy. DANIEL OBI provides excerpts:
Would you say that Nigeria pays as much attention to proper management of agricultural harvests as it ought to?
Nigeria is making progress managing agricultural harvests. However, we need to pay more attention to effective planning for more availability and access to finite food resources for the future. You may recall the food crisis that ensued during the peak of the COVID 19 pandemic. Food security is core to every nation and it is not just about food availability, but inclusive of food safety and its access. At NSPRI, we believe Nigeria needs to do more in post-harvest management in order to ensure food security.
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Some analysts have said that problems such as inadequate storage facilities for harvests exist because the Nigerian agricultural sector is not evolving as fast as it ought to. So, while there are lots of players in the areas of crop cultivation, animal husbandry and the wholesaling and retailing of these products, there are not proportionately high players in such aspects as food storage, food processing, food transportation and other specialized areas. In other words, specialization is not growing as fast as it should be. Would you agree with this?
To some extent, I would agree that there are disparities in terms of the number of persons involved in production compared with storage. However, the fact remains that the postharvest link of the agricultural value chain requires specialized skills, which are not yet widespread in our country. In the developed world, there are many people with special skills, and they have specialized transportation systems to move agricultural produce from the farm to the industry or markets. In other words, we do not only need people who are specially trained, we also need a more specialized agricultural ecosystem that makes provision for different operational aspects such as specialized vehicles for conveying agricultural commodities to reduce postharvest losses. But it’s a developmental process. We will get there someday.
Also, reviewing government policy on food transportation will definitely salvage postharvest losses in Nigeria.
So, are there any ways by which NSPRI is helping to promote more agricultural specialization in the country?
NSPRI works on improving processing protocols of agricultural commodities, developing innovations and technologies that are pointers to hygienic products and offers advisory services to value chain actors. We engage in public enlightenment campaigns and advocacy to ensure specialization along the value addition chain among other activities that ensure postharvest management.
In our institute, what we do is interdisciplinary research. By this, all the disciplinesthat are required to provide appropriate solutions to postharvest problems work together to develop our innovations. Another thing we have done is to champion the establishment of the Federal College of Agricultural Produce Technology (FCAPT), where practitioners and students are trained on postharvest management of crops. The college awards OND and HND. In addition to the certificate programmes, our institute also organizes series of training workshops for stakeholders.
Is there promise in having a set of agriculture workers whose key focus is storage? Do you think that this might be a feasible business for entrepreneurs to go into?
Yes, we need to create more awareness of how lucrative storage is for food security. Thefeasibility and viability of agri-preneurship is vast and the opportunities along the value addition chain are numerous. Actors along the value chain enjoy the privilege of specialization and diversification; they can decide to specialize on certain aspects of the value addition chain. Some of such opportunities are bulking of durable commodities, drying of fish and tomato processing, just to mention a few.
One criticism that Africans generally receive is that we have heavy supply of sunshine throughout the year, but that we do very little with this sunshine. Has your institute been able to come up with any creative ways of using solar energy in postharvest food storage for instance?
Solar energy is a cheap and accessible source of energy and NSPRI has many on-going research projects on optimal use of solar energy. The institute has developed technologies that are powered with solar energy. The Solar Tent Dryer, the Parabolic Solar Dryer, the Mobile Tent Dryer, and the Hybrid dryer all use solar energy to dry agricultural commodities.
Our solar tray dryer is effective for drying fruits and vegetables at household level. The solar tent dryer is effective for drying high volume low value crops such as paddy rice, and for drying small size low fat fish such as “Whittlings” which is like the popular “Panla/Oporoko” that is a delicacy in many parts of this country. The parabolic solar dryer is suitable for drying various crops with enhanced heat retention and shorter drying rates. All these dryers ensure that dried products are free of contaminants, and toxins in food or crops, which are usually associated with improper drying. In other words, safety of the food products is guaranteed. With the adoption of these dryers our people will no longer have to dry these agricultural commodities by the roadside where animals and dust contaminate the dried products.
Talking about fruits and vegetables, rotten fruits are very common sight at Mile 12 Market in Lagos. But it is even worse in rural areas where huge quantities of fruits and vegetables get rotten or withered badly before they get to market. In fact, in Nigeria, if a fruit is not in season, you cannot get it to buy. If Mango is not in season, you cannot get it to buy. Don’t you think that this hampers the opportunities that farmers should potentially derive from farming and trading in such fruits? What is NSPRI doing in this regard?
NSPRI has a reputation for our long-standing commitment to capacity development of our citizens in the area of proper harvesting, postharvest handling and storage issues to ensure high food quality and safety. We have and continue to train famers on proper harvesting techniques, which is a major concern in postharvest loss management of fruits and vegetables. Proper packaging and transportation are important in postharvest loss prevention measures for fruits and vegetables. In this regard, NSPRI developed plastic crates for packing and transportation of fruits and vegetables. And to ensure availability of fruits and vegetables all year round, NSPRI devised drying technologies to prolong the shelflife of fruits and vegetables.
Postharvest losses in fruits and vegetables in Nigeria is about 50 percent annually. This is a worrisome situation because fruits and vegetables that are meant to complement other food items that we consume for a healthy life are wasting away. Unfortunately, preserving them fresh requires a lot of investment. Again, because electricity supply could be a challenge, using refrigeration may be difficult. One of the innovations that NSPRI has developed is the Evaporative Cooling systems (ECS), which can extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables for about two weeks. One salient point about this technology is that it is very effective in the northern parts of the country where a lot of vegetables are produced and the weather is dry,especially during harmattan. Another option of preserving the fruit and vegetables is by drying. The dried products are used for making juice or even eaten as snacks. The dried fruits contain same nutrients as the fresh ones. Vegetables can also be dried using any of our solar drying technologies. We have a few clients who sell dried fruits and vegetables locally and internationally.
To ease the difficulties of transporting fruits, NSPRI developed the stackable ventilated crates. Using these crates to transport fruits and vegetables minimizes damage and losses.
Effective cold chain technologies mostly depend on stable power supply. We just developed what we call the “self-chill solar cold room” for storage of fresh fruits and vegetables. This self-chill cold room is powered by solar energy, thus making it an attractive alternative to conventional cold chain facilities.
A very interesting area in which we are currently working and making enormous progress is in developing affordable solar-powered refrigerated systems to help our people extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. We want these solar refrigerated systems to be very effective and at the same time to be very affordable, because even though clean energy is sustainable and has lots of advantages, it comes at a cost.
Fruits from this part of the world are only available for consumers when they are in season. But elsewhere in the world, people can get any fruit to buy, whether the fruit is in season. What are you doing to change this?
NSPRI has worked on food wax that can prevent fruit spoilage and extend the shelf life of fruits; there is also storage of fruits in the Evaporative Cooling System, which I talked about earlier.Protocols on fruit processing have been developed by the Institute, which help preserve some fruits in their dry forms that can later be reconstituted. However, we are working on solar-powered cold room technology that can extend shelf life of fruits by several months. The technology would be ready for public presentation byDecember 2021.
Would you say that the innovations and interventions that you churn out are being commercialized at the rate you expect? Is the private sector forthcoming with the requisite support as readily as you expect?
The rate of commercialization of our technologies was initially slow but things are taking a new turn. We have not enjoyed much of private sector support in the past, but we are now working with a few companies. We have embarked on rigorous enlightenment through the media, and we hope it will yield dividend soon.
So, how exactly are you carrying out this enlightenment?
I knew this would be the next question. We have actually recently decided to increase the level at which we promote our technologies. We are using the concept of “adopted villages” collaborating with farmers at the village level by supporting them to access the recommended technologies. We have adopted schools, and are introducing some of our postharvest technologies to students, parents and teachers. We also organize training workshops and symposia to showcase our research outputs to stakeholders.The Institute also engages in public enlightenment through radio and television programmes, including advertising, production of advisory manuals and leaflets for dissemination of our technologies and innovation to end-users.
Can you shed some light on these innovations, besides fruits and vegetables? Let’s use maize or beans or grains in general as an example. What innovations have you introduced to help farmers store harvested grains better?
The institute has developed quite a few tested and proven technologies for effective storage of cereal grains and pulses. By pulses, I mean legumes like beans. We developed the Maize Crib some years ago and it is suitable for storage of maize on cob. In the southern part of the country, it is usually not advisable to leave maize to dry in the farm properly before it is harvested, because of rainfall and high relative humidity. In such circumstances the maize can quite easily get infested by moulds and insects. So, we have developed these Maize cribs where harvested maize can be stored. These cribs are ventilated and the maize gradually dries to a safe moisture level without the incidence of moulds or insect infestation.
The Hermetic Steel Drum is another storage technology that allows smallholder farmers, traders, and housewives to store their grainsin an airtight container that does not support the growth of insects and other spoilage organisms. This hermetic technology is suitable for dry-processed products such as cassava chips, yam chips, pepper, okra, tomatoes, green etc. The beauty of the technology is that, for as long as it is tightly sealed, insect activity is eliminated, and because chemical treatment is not required.
We have also developed a kind of storage silos known as InertAtmosphere Silos.These silos are suitable for the large scale and long-term storage of grains. This technology can store grains for four years without loss of food value in the grains. Moisture condensation, which is the sole cause of mould growth and caking in the conventional steel silos,do not occur in the inert atmosphere silo.In addition, temperature fluctuation is significantly low. So, it can maintain germinability of stored seeds for about nine months. Again, this technology does not use any synthetic chemical. Nitrogen gas is used to modify the atmosphere within the silo, which makes it lethal to insects and moulds. This technology should interest people who are exporting grains as they need not fear rejection of their grains because of pesticide residue.
NSPRI has also developed NSPRIDUST non-chemical grain preservative, which would be released to the market soon.
We understand that NSPRI has several patents as well. If you are producing equipment for the common man and you are not averse to people copying your innovations, why then do you need to patent these innovations?
Yes, we do have several patents. We have patents for the Iced-fish box, which is used for storing freshly harvested fish. Our fish-smoking kilns, which can run on charcoal, gas or electricity and dry fish uniformly, help to produce export-quality smoked fish. We also have patents on our Inert Atmosphere silos which are used for storing large quantities of grains over long periods. We have a patent on NISPRIDUST as well. NSPRIDUST is a non-chemical pesticide or what you would call a bio-pesticide. Bio-pesticides are generally much safer than chemical pesticides. NISPRIDUST contains an active ingredient known as diatomaceous earth. It is currently in the final stages of registration with NAFDAC and will be introduced to the market once that process is completed.
We are also working to secure more patents. The place of intellectual property rights is to allow the Institute to get maximum benefits for the intellectual efforts of our scientists who are working tirelessly to come up with the innovations.
Do you encourage farmers to copy the design and mode of operation of your innovations?
Yes. We encourage this a lot. Our goal is to see our interventions improve the livelihoods and generally enhance the quality of life of our people. All the innovations are for the ultimate benefit of the people.
How are you able to get the farmers to replicate your designs accurately? Is there any monitoring of these designs and their operations?
What we do is to train artisans in various localities to accurately replicate our designs. For instance, we have trained quite a lot of fabricators on fabrication of smoking kilns, and many of our beneficiaries are making a living fabricating the smoking Kilns. The same thing applies to our solar dryers and others.
How would you rate the uptake of NSPRI’s innovations across the country? Would you say that uptake is as good as you expect? If not, what do you think needs to be done to enhance uptake?
The uptake of NSPRI’s technologies can best be described as a bitter-sweet scenario. Our improved smoking kiln has been widely adopted across the country. We have constructed over 50 units for individual fish farmers or processors. About 200 units were bought by the Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO), in 2005, while hundreds of units have been bought under the constituency projects and special intervention projects. However, the same cannot be said of some of our other technologies. Our solar dryers are now in different parts of the country. Our 500-ton capacity inert atmosphere silo is in Landmark University Omu-Aran,Kwara State where it is used to store grains to feed their poultry and livestock. But we continue to engage commodity associations and other pressure groups to invest in these technologies to empower their members. The more people understand the value and cost savings, which these technologies translate to, the more they are inclined to adopt them.
How would you rate the support you get from local communities? Would you consider the support you get from local communities sufficient, or do you think it could be improved? If so, how do you think you could improve your engagement with local communities?
The support from local communities has improved, over the years, but we still yearn for more of their participation. We foresee a time when farmers clearly understand that agricultural development is a collective effort to the extent that they are willing to contribute in tangible terms towards the delivery of innovative technologies.
Do you collaborate with universities? There is a view that Nigerian scientists tend to work in silos and as such are often not aware of collaboration opportunities with other scientists or may not be aware that they are merely repeating a project that has been done elsewhere.
NSPRI encourages and welcomes collaborations; we are working with the Agricultural Developmental Programme, National Agricultural Research Institutes and Universities to project the importance of postharvest management. Currently, we are partnering with Benue State university’s Centre for Food and Technology Research (BSU-CEFTER), which is World Bank African Centre of Excellence in post-harvest food loss reduction. The collaboration is yielding positive results on multiple fronts. We have provided postharvest technologies for teaching, learning and extension activities for CEFTER. Some of our senior researchers are teaching special courses on postharvest food loss reduction while several of our staff have postgraduate training in various fields.
How much support do you receive from international agencies?
We are enjoying the support of international agencies on specific areas of research in my institute. In the past seven years, we initiated collaborations with The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), VESTERGAARD and Oklahoma State University (OSU), just to mention a few.
Are you involved in meat and milk storage or preservation?
We are involved in meat preservation but not much of milk preservation. The National Animal Research Production Institute (NAPRI), is much more involved in the two areas.
How can we best cultivate the attention and interest of young people towards agriculture?
One, the development of more smart agricultural technologies, which will check the level of drudgery associated with traditional agricultural practices and encourage youth participation.
Secondly, we should make agriculture very attractive along the entire value chain, starting from production to marketing of agricultural products. The youth should see agriculture as a business venture that can be done like any other business.
The “Catch them young approach” is very important too, because it enables young people to begin to appreciate the value and prospects of agriculture from a very early age. Through our “adopt a school” programme, youths are engaged to participate in agriculture right from secondary school, training and retraining of youths, capacity building and empowerment etc.
It is important to strengthen higher education in agriculture and empower young people to speak up. Access to land and credit also needs to be improved. Greater public investment in agriculture in general, including ensuring that it remains on the curricula of schools is also very important. And then, promoting it on social media is critical too.
