Our Vision

  • Farmers Food Center, Packaging & Value Addition

    We recommend the establishment of farmers collection centers for value addition / modern transportation system to the urban markets for consumption. These can be cited in the six Geo-Political zones of the country.

  • Preservation and Packaging

    Establishment of fish processing centers for preservation and packaging for value addition.

  • Ranching

    Ranching involves the demarcation of an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of raising, grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat, milk or wool.

The Way Out

The challenges of high post-harvet food losses and preservation in Nigeria are not insurmountable. The prospects of overcoming both high post-harvest food losses and preservation in Nigeria look bright if Nigerians demonstrate the determination to do so which is the logical option.

Research

Effort at tackling domestic problems in the past had focused on technology transfer but this approach has not yielded the desired results. the challenges are best resolve by critical assessment with a view to identifying the constraint and then modifying known technologies appropriately to suit particular commodities. more research is needed.

Nigerian governments and the organized private food sector must show commitment towards research in indigenous food commodities especially now that the multinational food companies have not demonstrated sufficient interest in local foods. such research efforts should include conservation of generic diversity, domestication and development of cultivars best suited for processing, yield, early maturity, size, configuration, nutrition, pest resistance, etc. research is the bedrock for reduced post-harvest food losses and effective food processing and preservation in Nigeria.

Local Production of Food Processing / Preservation Equipment

it has been canvassed repeatedly that for post-hrvest processes and other agricultural development efforts to succeed in Nigeria, we must focus on domestic engineering initiative, to design, and manufacture locally most of the tools, equipment and machine (Odigboh, 1999). Also Odigboh (2000) indicated that all started by establishing the world which have achieved significant success in the agriculture industry notably China, India, Philippines, Brazil, Sri-Lanka, Egypt, etc. all started by establishing domestic manufacture of the needed machines and equipment based on a national development policy which emphasizes self reliance as an operative technological ideology.

Some of the major compelling reasons why local agricultural manufacturing industry is a must for Nigeria, include the following:-

(a.) The imported agricultural machines are generally so technically complex and costly.

(b) Because of their high cost, the number of imported agricultural machines in actual use is limited. this makes the development of effective after-sales services uneconomical, local manufacturer will readily solve them.

(c) There are many staple food and cash crops which are unique to Nigeria and for which there are no machinery of American, European or Asia origin. 

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Mr Dan Ubah
Chief Executive Officer, IARAD