tackle some of the perceived challenges
Some of the initiatives include:
Household Chlorine Bleaches:
To extend the shelf life of tomatoes,
some practices are already being
adopted in some countries across the
value chain. These practices, as well as
other cost-effective interventions, can be
implemented in Nigeria to reduce the high
rates of post-harvest losses as they could
extend the shelf life of tomatoes from two
days to three weeks. For example, the use
of household chlorine bleach to rinse and
sanitize tomatoes helps eliminate bacterial
diseases and ensure tomatoes stay fresh
before sale.
Cold Rooms Powered by Solar:
This is a relatively new initiative where
solar powered cold rooms could give small
holder farmers the ability to store their
produces before sale without incurring
the high cost of energy associated with
prolonged cooling. A few companies in
Africa have already started establishing
walk-in cold rooms where farmers can
store their produces in exchange for a
subscription fee.
life. Access to cold storage facilities is
limited and where available comes at
a high price due to the cost associated
with self-generated power in the face
of epileptic public electricity supply. In
addition, most farmers transport their
produce in baskets stacked on one
another in trucks. The stacking of tomato
baskets most times result in crushing of
the fruits, especially the ones at the base
of the stacks. It is estimated that farmers
lose up to 45% of their post-harvest
yield through the combined impact of
poor transport infrastructure and lack of
appropriate storage facilities.
Other
challenges
affecting
the
development of the tomato value chain
is the absence of adequate processing
facilities. The low shelf life of tomato makes
a commercial case for the establishment
of processing facilities that can convert
the fruit into paste, juice or powder.
Such activities are however limited by the
high cost of processing and packaging
27
machinery, access to adequate all-year
supply of tomato fruit at fairly stable prices,
and availability of adequate financing or
capital. Due to poor farming techniques,
tomatoes are harvested seasonally which
implies that prices may be at their lowest
when the product is in abundance and
highest when the vegetable is out of
season. This makes it difficult to project
prices and thus revenues, affecting
the ability of managers to plan. In the
absence of such planning capabilities,
access to appropriate financing becomes
limited and downright expensive, further
escalating the implicit inefficiencies in the
value chain. Though effort has been made
to address the challenges associated
with access to financing at cheap rates,
the underlying concerns of hampering
efficient production and processes remain.
Despite the challenges permeating tomato
farming in Nigeria, there is a ray of hope
as several innovations are now available to
Zero Energy Cool Chamber (ZECC):
These are more traditional double layered
brick wall structures filled with sand
and walls soaked with water. They are
considered easy to build facilities which
can reduce temperature by 150C with
humidity of 95%. Such a chamber could
increase the shelf life and retain the quality
of the vegetable. These could be adopted
in developing countries like Nigeria as
they are simple, easy and cost-effective
for smallholder farmers.
Packing Houses:
These are large storage facilities where
vegetables are collected, washed, sorted
and stored in coolers before they are
transported to the market for sale. In
2017, the Kaduna State Government
commissioned a packing house to provide
local farmers a value addition aggregation
facility to assist local farmers minimize
their post-harvest losses.
The Corvus | September 2019