Staring With Fruits and Vegetables
The importance of fruits and vegetables to human and other domestic animals can never be put down in one piece as it is possible for a human to survive only on those two and will still stay healthy.
Aside their high nutritional benefits, their consumption as complete meal has been seen as the most preferred weight loss option because they are low in calories.
Fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants which cut down the damages on DNA and then cutting down the risk of cancer in human. They have been applied in the reduction of body cholesterol and blood pressure.
The Perishables still perish
Fruits and vegetables are not the only perishables under threat in developing nations like Nigeria, fish, meat and dairy products complete the list.
One thing common with all of them is that their maturity is fixed and does not in most cases depend on human activities like, war, strike, poor infrastructural development and polices of individuals, groups or government.
Once they are matured and produced, the next thing facing them is either consumption or spoilage, while storage which should have been the third option has been set aside by the activities put in place to cut down the spread of Covid-19.
The Covid-19 pandemic has put the world in a state where it has realized that the most essential thing is human life, not pets or economy and the resultant effect is that farmers have remained at home or in their farms working for customers who are all locked down in their homes.
Time Wasn’t Locked Down
With time not locked down, fruits, vegetable, meat, fish and dairy products will be ready at the same time they were supposed to without lockdown and the disconnect caused by the lockdown on the supply chain has seen farmers watch their perishables produce damage because there is no market.
In most cases, harvesting was seen as waste of labour because there was no market as well as means of transportation for the produce.
Poultry owners are spending more feed on birds that were supposed to have been sold, while farmers who managed to get their produce on the road saw some of them spoil because the trucks were stopped by law enforcement agents, who did not have enough education to know that food is a key essential in the life of human beings.
Targeting Food Trucks
The agro-diversity nature of Nigeria meant food must be transport no matter the severity of lockdown. Trucks conveying food and drugs are the most eligible vehicles to beat the interstate travel ban and the corruption in the country made them a target.
Police and other law enforcement agents saw it as an opportunity to extort drivers of these trucks, knowing that the goods they are transporting are time-bound. Where drivers cannot comply, products go ahead to spoil and in most cases, the delay they encounter at the various checkpoints on the road ensures they get to the market very late and this has drastically affected the sales of perishables which in most cases are no longer fresh. (A link to validate the claim )
Another group of people who have targeted food trucks are traffickers and smugglers. Their activities of transporting people shielded by food as well as smuggling other items from one state to another has also made it compulsory that food trucks will be thoroughly searched by security agents at almost all checkpoints.
Food trucks became the most vulnerable on the road, when they are supposed to be the most protected and it is obvious that if no food is supplied, there will be none to be stored, preserved or consumed.
The Lessons We Should Learn
With Covid-19 exposing our vulnerability globally in terms of food storage and security, it is time for us as nations to learn from an ordinary man who survived on what he saved during a 6 weeks lockdown. It then becomes obvious that savings is the key to our survival.
As it concerns food, how much can we save? If we can invest in technologies that can fight a one year war in a day, is it then not possible that we can invest on technologies that can save one year food for in case something similar to Covid-19 visits us again.
In Nigeria where 50% of perishables are lost, we can save what we have been losing, encourage more production and have enough to export to other countries.
One of the key things aside extensive investments in storage facilities is education on the side of farmers and other stakeholder in the industry. Security agents most especially needs to be trained on how to handle food trucks on the highway and should also be provided with necessary gadgets that will enable search vehicles easily without having to keep them for long on the road.
• Off Grid Powered Storage Solution
With the power issue in Nigeria and some other African countries, off grid power sources are the only thing that can help us achieve a great a sustainable storage system that will enable us store a good amount of food that will encourage export.
The key thing in food storage is that we make it available and affordable at every point of the food supply chain in a way that instead of increasing the cost of food for final consumers, it will make more food available for them.
Production sites
There is need to have solar powered storage facilities around farm clusters to enable farmers have their produce fresh days after harvest. If we had these facilities during this Covid-19 lockdown, most of the losses incurred by farmers will surely be avoided and the implication is that the food saved will still be available for consumption when transportation of food has been sorted out in the lockdown procedures.
Transportation Routes
Tons of food is lost due to poor handle and vehicles conveying perishables having to spend longer time on the road before delivery.
The use of trucks to convey food from the North to the East for instance is a poor strategy, we should be talking about trains by this time and when we insist on trucks, they should be sustainably refrigerated trucks that do not need to burn any form of fuel to cool food.
Having such transport facilities will mean that food will get to the retailers fresh and same with the consumers if they are purchased the same day.
Consumption sites (Market)
Most of the losses incurred by people dealing on perishables are in the markets where it is expected that consumers will buy them all at once.
The demand for most perishables are never steady and often affected by season, weather, and price. The presence of affordable storage facilities in these markets will mean that traders can be sure that every day will have fresh produce in front of them.
Storing food at production/aggregation and consumption sites as well as the transportation routes would be key to see that even when lockdown reduces the influx of buyers, the food will still be kept fresh for more than 20 days.
Segregation of food markets
Planning markets for grains and perishables differently would mean that cold storage facilities will be included where necessary and this would also ensure that government would know how to manage these markets situations that would require measures like lockdown.
With markets well planned, government through their agency can also monitor and support the management of food coming into various states to ensure they are either well distributed or stored since hunger and food scarcity can result to state wide or national disasters.
