A Gombe-based Agronomist, Dr Joseph Kaltungo said poor and inadequate storage warehouses and facilities in rural communities were threatening the food security efforts of the government at all levels.
Joseph, who stated this in an interview in Gombe on Tuesday, said “Food sufficiency cannot be achieved without proper investment in storage warehouses and facilities.”
He said that if the country must make progress in the agriculture sector, there had to be good infrastructure that would help to prevent post-harvest losses.
He added that “the lack of proper storage facilities remains a major challenge in food security efforts by stakeholders.
“Today, I can tell you that many farmers produce more than what they could consume and because they have no storage facilities, the bulk of the produce get wasted or infested.
“A huge percentage of food produced in Nigeria perish before they get to a consumer, and the lack of proper storage is a key driver of these losses.
“The absence of storage infrastructure has forced farmers to sell their produce immediately after harvest when supply is high and prices are at their lowest.
“This is why some middlemen take advantage to buy off produce from farmers and hoard them, only to sell when prices shoot up.
“This makes farmers lose income, while reducing their chances of getting good returns on investments, thereby having little funds to meet their household
needs.”
According to him, some farmers attempt to store their harvest in their homes but are unable to preserve the quality of the commodities with such measures.
He stated that because farmers lacked access to adequate storage measures to prevent the degradation of their produce, the commodities got wasted.
On what should be done, Kaltungo said government and development organisations needed to build more community warehouses.
He said, “There is need to build warehouses in rural communities to prevent post-harvest losses.”
He advised farmers to seek knowledge from extension officers on how best to preserve their produce by fumigating silos and warehouses against insects and rodents.
NAN
