‘Let’s prevent food poisoning by adopting pesticides-free storage technology’
By Seye Adeniyi - updated: Wednesday 25-06-2008
Engineer Anthony Egba"We may continue to record the incidence of food poisoning and its associated problems as long as we continue to use toxic chemicals to preserve agricultural produce"
These were some of the words of Engineer Anthony Egba, during an interview with TribuneAgriculture.
Engineer Egba who is an expert in the construction of Inert Atmosphere Metal Silos for the strategic preservation of grains for long period of time against the attack of insects and other micro organisms said using pesticides to preserve harvest produce has significant disadvantages, one of which is food poisoning.
Egba who constructed the inert atmosphere metal silos at the Nigerian stored products Research Institutes (NSPRI), Ibadan, Oyo State explained that the modern technology of storing and preserving harvested crops especially grains like cowpea, rice, wheat, millet, barley and maize is in vogue all over the world today because the technology is using nitrogen gas rather than chemicals to preserve grains.
“Nigerian farmers should move with time and realise the fact that the era of using chemicals (pesticides) to preserve agricultural produce or bulk storage of grains is now fading away. All over the world today, what is being used or encouraged are modern technologies that operate on Nitrogen gas,” he said.
Speaking further, Egba said it will be recalled that in the past, and even some few months ago, there were reported cases of food or pesticide poisoning through the consumption of beans and this has caused several death of innocent people especially small children in different parts of the country. The major reason for this he said is the use of chemicals (i.e. pesticides) to store food crops and that is why we are preaching the use of inert atmosphere metal silos by farmers to preserve their harvested crops, he further stated.
The agriculturally/mechanically trained engineer also emphasised that if farmers can adopt the use of inert atmosphere silos to store their produce on a large scale, the technology will definitely remove the danger and incidence of consuming “killer beans, which has become a recurring phenomenon in the country as it does not require the use of pesticides for produce preservation and “since one of the major challenges facing our research system today is the low adoption of the several research results from our research institutes, therefore, there is a need to identify such technologies like the Inert Atmosphere Silos, which we are ready to give to our farmer at an affordable price and which is available in Nigeria and it is more effective than using pesticides to preserve bulk grains. We are ready to give to farmers, industrialists, corporate organisations, and other end-users at an affordable price and put into use, it would scale up food production and guard against food poisoning”, he stressed.
Speaking on the mode of operation of the Inert Atmosphere Silos which makes it affordable and highly better than using chemicals to preserve agricultural produce, Engineer Egba stressed that nitrogen being an inert gas is used to display oxygen and the volume of the silos will determine the quantity of Nitrogen gas that will be used.
Nitrogen gas, he stressed displaces oxygen gas which are usually produce by stored grains and once there is no oxygen in the silos, then there cannot be spoilage or of seeds or attack by micro-organisms. There is also no residual effect on health unlike the use of chemicals and the modern silos can store large quantity of grains for as long as five to six years without spoilage. “So I encourage all the state government of the federation to adopt, multiply this cheap, affordable, simple storage technology so as to improve food production on a large scale and prevent post-harvest wastages of agricultural produce. If we can adopt this technology, then it would ensure food security and save us from the embarasement of importing foods like rice and maize with billions of naira,”, he reiterated.
Other agricultural experts also lend their supports for the adoption of this modern technology and advised farmers to make use of it for large scale production of food guard against post-harvest wastages of agricultural produce especially grains.
According to Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Barrister Kunle Ishola, the efforts of past governments to boost food production through improved seeds and other agricultural inputs had not succeeded in making food available to the masses in the right quality and quantity due to post-harvest losses to insects and other wastages as a result of inadequate storage facilities for preservation.
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Why food crisis should not occur in Nigeria - NSPRI director
Food storage is very important in the attainment of food security. In this interview conducted by Sade Oguntola with Dr. (Mrs.) Moji Adesida, Executive Director, Nigerian Stored Products Research Institutes, Ilorin, she explained why Nigeria as a nation should not be threatened by food crisis. Excerpts:
Achievements as an institute.
During my tenure we have achieved a lot especially in the issue of adding value to produce, not just preserving them primarily as they are, but processing them. We have a standard processing building now certified even with NAFDAC that is meant for addition of value and processing of agricultural products. This is with the purpose of preserving them for a longer period and ensure they earn more money as well as keep them till to the off season.
Have these technologies been adopted?
We have people who have been adopting them. We use them for several commodities like tomatoes and pepper that can be re-constitute as soup ingredients, ready made. So that the housewife just takes it and add to the meat or fish stock and the soup is ready.
In the past, we have achieved a lot in the area of storage of many agricultural products; storage in cribs for fresh corn, sorghum, rice, etc. We have also adopted the Rumbo and improved on it. The rumbo is for storage of grains in the northern part of the country as the crib is used in the southern part of the country. This is for on-farm storage as well as a drying structure.The several storage methods allows the farmer to plant all year round.
Your in-house review for year 2008 was with a theme market driven post-harvest research. Why this?
Times change. In the past we were just doing research to find out what was happening and that was why they were into things like farming systems, fertiliser usage, storage etc. Then we left the era and came to the era of adapted technologies, which involve looking at what was happening in other places and adapting those that do well to our environment. But now, we have come to another era where we feel that we should see what have been adapted and look at the challenges facing the users. So we are not only looking at these people alone but also what they want. Locally, what is the taste of Nigerians, what is the gaps left unfilled. The market has become a global one and different countries vary with specifications for the type of produce they want.
Is this also to ensure storability?
When you improve the storability, you will improve the quality. So all is aiming at the same goal. Improving the quality this way, will make it acceptable to all these people when they demand for them.
On the issue of fish handling and processing, you have it as a part of the projects to undertake in the institute this year.
The institute has in its mandate the handling of all agricultural products, and that includes all livestock products we have been working on them. We have a programme in the institute for development of technologies for handling fish and meat. We have since developed some technologies for this, including driers that could be used. Some are just for drying, some for smoking. Some people still like their fish smoked and we are thinking of improving these technologies. For instance, you will see a lot of people like eating Kelishi, a dried meat from theNorth and but because of the way it is prepared, there is no way you will not have contamination with stones. So we are looking at how we can adapt these our own driers and increase their capacities and even develop other driers that may be able to process the Kelishi in more acceptable forms.
The issue of establishing an agriculture product quality standard laboratory, where does this come in?
It all bothers on the issue of standards.
Don’t we have standards?
We have standards and we are still developing more standards. For instance, in collaboration with Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), we developed standards for gaari. Gaari is indigenous to Nigeria and many Nigerians in diaspora and others that have tasted it are requesting for garri. So we are looking at the export of the commodity. This is not for Europeans to do because they do not know what standards to look for. We have also developed standards for other cassava and yam products.
We need the laboratory to be able to meet those standards; when they are talking about pesticide residues, they want you to tell them the level of pesticide residue in any commodity that is coming to their country. It must appear on the label. We want that kind of laboratory that will be able to measure all those specifications established in NSPRI.
Is it a laboratory that will certify for export?
We will have the laboratory and any body can bring in their product. We will give them the results. NAFDAC does the certification, we don’t.
In the colonial era, NSPRI was doing it and it was recognised since it was the colonial rulers that set up the institute. But the laws have changed in the country. You now have certifying agencies. NSPRI is a research institute but we can analyse the commodity for anyone that is interested. If you take the result to NAFDAC, because we are all collaborators, they will accept them. If they want to cross check, NAFDAC can also cross check in their own laboratories too.
On food crisis and storage.
We have enough technologies for all the categories of people involved in the food chain after harvest. We have on-farm storage and processing technologies. We have for traders, for industrialists, housewives and so on. We have technologies for small and large scale, for on-farm and off-farm. So, if these technologies are adapted, we should not be losing any of our commodities in Nigeria.
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