It is estimated that Nigeria loses 30 to 50 percent of its crops to post-harvest losses. Gloria Elemo, former director-general of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), estimated in 2017 that Africa’s biggest economy recorded post-harvest losses valued at $9 billion annually. One major reason for losing such humongous amount of money is lack of cold storage facilities or farmers’ limited access to them.
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, founder and chief executive officer of Coldhubs, has come to the rescue. He provides solar-powered cold storage facilities to farmers in Nigeria.
His company has solarpowered, walk-in cold room made of 120mm insulating cold room panels which facilitate cold retention. Energy from solar panels mounted on the roof-top of the cold room is stored in high capacity batteries. The batteries feed an inverter, which, in turn, supply energy to the refrigerating unit.
Coldhubs provides farmers with a flexible payas-you-store subscription model. Farmers transfer their perishable foods into reusable crates, which fit neatly onto the shelves. They are allowed to pay a daily flat fee for each crate of food stored.
Coldhubs says it extends the shelf life of perishable food from two to 21 days and reduces post harvest loss by 80 percent. By doing so, it raises smallholder farmers’ income by 25 percent, it says.
Coldhubs sees its solution as a ‘plug and play’ modular cold room, which enables it to provide 24/7 off-grid storage and preservation of perishable foods.
“Our solution adequately addresses the problem of post- harvest losses in fruits, vegetables and other perishable food,” the firm says.
“Coldhubs is installed in major food production and consumption centers (in markets and farms),” it notes.
The firm says its target is to hire mainly women to manage the operations while making more nutritious food available to rural and urban dwellers, especially children.
Ikegwuonu is a graduate of Arts, History and International Studies from Imo State University.
He is an innovator and leading social entrepreneur. He founded Smallholders Foundation Limited in 2003.
The entrepreneur also created Smallholder Farmer Rural Radio, with over one million Nigerian listeners. He is likewise the founder of the Agriprenuership Academy, the Smallholders Seed Store, and Smallholders Microcredit.
He has won over 23 awards, including Ashoka Fellow 2008; Rolex Awards 2010; Nigeria’s Young Person of the Year 2011; Niigata International Food Prize Laureate 2012; and 2013 Laureate of the Yara Prize for Green Revolution.
Speaking to CTA, an agriculture- and entrepreneurship-focused platform in 2019, the entrepreneur said his decision to produce solar-powered cold storage came as a result of his passion to eliminate food spoilage resulting from lack of refrigerated facilities.
“To run the cold units, we needed access to energy, which is incredibly unreliable in Nigeria. We therefore wanted a system where we were the ones in control of our energy generation and electricity infrastructure, and our best option was to incorporate solar power,” he said.
He said his firm’s solar panels generate 5,500 megawatts (MW) of energy every hour, though it uses only about 1,000 MW per hour to power each of its cold rooms.
“Last year, our units were accessed by 650 farmers and saved 11,400 t of food from spoiling,” he disclosed.
“As a result, farmers increased their incomes from around €50 to over €100 per month, simply by eliminating their previous postharvest losses due to lack of refrigeration.”
He told CTA that his firm’s target in 2020 is to increase to 100 cold rooms across Nigeria.
“Our goal is to make sure that 45,000 smallholder farmers have access to cold storage by 2030, using a pay-as-you-store model,” he said.
“Through this model, farmers pay based on the amount of fruit and vegetables they store in our units, with one 20 kg plastic crate costing €0.44,” he explained.
Ikegwuonu pointed out that his company tackles limited awareness of postharvest losses for perishable food among farmers and other food supply chain actors through training.
