“Poor Storage Facilities Impede Local Horticulture in Nigeria” – Expert

A former Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Mufutau Animashaun, has stated that efforts at increasing horticulture production in Nigeria are being undermined by lack of adequate infrastructure.

The one time commissioner stressed the importance of developing modern agriculture to support the growth of fresh produce industry.

Animashaun stated that farmers need to apply new storage concepts to achieve prosperity in rural areas, calling for improved post-harvest capacity to ensure horticultural crops, fruits and vegetables are in supply, and at the same time narrowing income gap.

According to him, the situation is an impediment to the government’s quest to motivate farmers to boost local production to ensure food security, aside robbing farmers of their primary source of livelihood.

“The missing thing in crop harvest in this country is post-harvest technology, management and packaging; these are very essential and important in any nation’s agricultural growth,” he said.

“This is what gives the developed economy edge over us, they believe in technology a lot and they spend money on research. You can’t import a technology that was made for a country with different climate to a country that has a very strong climate.Iam an ardent preacher of environmental reality. Any problem in this country has its own solution here and not a borrowed solution.It might solve the problem temporarily.”

To reverse this, Animashaun said his organisation is working with a sister institution in the UK to provide solutions, adding that his organization has a post-harvest unit that is very involved in researches and test for most fruits and vegetables for supermarkets in the UK such as Tessco, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer and other major big supermarkets.

He added that they carry out the palatability test, aroma, flavour and acceptability by consumers of all these products that come to UK and send the analyses and results to them.