Post harvest losses |
It is sad
that people go hungry in this country in spite the quantity of food produced by
the various value chains.
That Nigerians still go hungry day by day due to food
wastage across the nation, is a situation that demands an urgent attention lest
it leads to generational suffering and malnutritionin the near future.
The media
in general have reported figures of more than 111 million people hungry daily
and yet we waste 10billion naira worth of food annually. The question is not
why, but how we can prevent this situation that is gradually leading to more
than a quarter of the food produced in Nigeria spoiling.
Although it
is the right of every Nigerian citizen to eat daily, people go hungry because
our farmers produce everyday but battle with post-harvest losses caused by
severe weather, disease and pests, or poor harvesting and lack of storage
facilities and techniques. Annual post-harvest losses for cereal grains, roots
and tuber crops, fruits, vegetables, meat, milk and fish amounting to more than
10billion naira worth of food annually is recorded according to several reports.
About 10 per
cent is wasted before it leaves the farm and retailers waste another 10 per
cent. More waste occurs in grocery stores, restaurants and hotels and in the
storage and transportation process.
The travel
industry is a huge food-waster, one study estimated that the amount of food
that gets wasted during transportation, could feed 200,000 people across the
country each year.
The amount
of food that ends up wasted is more than enough to feed every Nigerian who goes
to bed hungry, or wakes up not knowing for sure where their next meal will come
from, and has informed the recent call on the high rate of malnutrition that
makes the country’s massive and unfortunate hunger problem also largely
unnecessary, and requires that habits be changed and incentives introduced to
help keep food waste out of wastebags, and put it on the plates of those who
need it.
It’s cruel
that we waste billions of naira worth of usable food each year, and funny
enough the waste affects us all, adding 10 per cent or more to the cost of our
food, although few of us do not want to waste food and would be happy to see it
go to people who need it. Thumbs up to those who are making that happen.
In either
case the extraordinary quantity of food going to waste can be checkmated
through the control of the excessive production of foods that never makes it
off the farm for those that can stand severe weather, disease and pests, or
poor harvesting and storage techniques thereby saving the country billions of
Naira annually, through the use of refrigerated trucks and a distribution
system with cold storage where foods approaching their best-before dates are
examined and repacked for distribution to local non-profit agencies, the needy
or to farmers as livestock feeds when it is past its usefulness to humans
instead of wasting, could also help avert the farmers’/herdsmen clashes.
To put under
check the amount of wastages government needs to make provisions for right
techniques and technologies that will preserve the value of the food that are
thrown away due to annual post-harvest losses by having the Ministry of Agriculture, and Rural
Development through its Minister of Agric in partnership with the legislature
propose a federal legislation that would use tax incentives to encourage farmers,
retailers, restaurants and schools to reduce waste, diverting what can still be
eaten to food banks situating within and outside the country, other
organizations that help feed the poor, and turning non-edible food scraps into
energy or compost to avoid the waste stream, just as it was done in the United
States by the U.S. Rep.
ChelliePingree, and also done in the University of
Maine-Farmington, where a student founded a local chapter off the Food Recovery
Network, in Aramark, the school’s food service provider packages and preserves
unused food, and volunteers pick it up each week and take it to the Homeless
Outreach.
Many food
retailers also donate food that has exceeded its “best-by” date (which doesn’t
truly reflect how long a product is good for, another target of Pingree’s
bill). Shaw’s Supermarkets recently ended their donation program in the
Brunswick area, until they were scolded into reversing course.
Perhaps
better tax incentives would shore up these programs, and allow some retailers
to expand them. As part of this effort, the entire food chain must be examined
to see where food is falling off into the waste stream.
Consumers,
too, need education on the scope of the issue, and on how to shop smarter, and
to properly use food waste.
Technology
can help, as well, to connect retailers and other suppliers of bulk food to the
charity organizations that feed the poor.
Hunger is a
massive problem, and solutions, particularly those that transcend political
lines, are not easy to come by.
But we know
that the billions of naira and food value that go waste each day in Nigeria,
where 111 million persons have trouble feeding themselves at some point this
year, can be checkmated if government truly plans
on feeding the next generation.
Remember
it’s just my opinion if we’re looking for answers, let’s start there.
No comments:
Post a Comment