From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos
Coldhub, a technology company that provides solutions to reducing post-harvest food losses in partnership with Heifer International, an NGO with the mission to ending hunger and poverty, has unveiled a solar-powered walk-in cold room at Abat CBD Market, Elesokan, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State.
The official launching ceremony of the solar-power installed capacity cold room designed for 24/7 off-grid food storage and preservation took place at the CBD Tomato Market in Elesokan on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, where experts and end users expressed happiness for the cold room facility which would end post-harvest loss in that axis.
Speaking at the occasion, Chairman/CEO of ColdHubs, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu said that Cold hubs are solar-powered walk-in cold rooms designed to reduce food spoilage. “The work we are doing is to reduce food spoilage using this solar-powered cold rooms. So we as a company build cold rooms in food markets for storage of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meat and other perishable foods.”
Ikegwuonu disclosed that Coldhubs started in 2015 and today, they are 26 states “We started out in 2015 as a small company and from that humble beginning we are presently running 58 Cold hubs in 26 states of Nigeria.
“We are present in the southwest of Nigeria, we are present in the northeast, northwest, in the north central, in the South-South, Southwest and Southeast of Nigeria. These 58 cold hubs are at the moment serving 6,371 users, they range from farmers, retailers.”
He said the unveiling of the cold room at the Abat CBD Market was a celebration of a successful partnership between Coldhubs and Heifer International. “We are here today to celebrate the successful partnership between Coldhubs and Heifer International. Heifer International is one of the oldest NGOs in the world, and two years ago we started receiving support from Heifer International. The support is really important for us to deploy 10 cold hubs across Nigeria, eight of them of 3tonnes capacity and today, 6 of those 3 tonnes capacity have already been installed. So we have cold hubs in Shasha Market in Ado-Ekiti, in Shasha Market, in Akure; we also have in Sabo Market in Ore. We have in Bodija Market in Ibadan, we have in Kuto Market in Abeokuta; we also have in Abat CBD Market in Ibeju Lekki.”
Ikegwuonu said cold storage can extend the shelf life of food produce “The goal is to provide cold storage to outdoor food markets, and using this cold storage the people can actually extend the shelf life of food. “Instead of tomato staying for two days or three days, you can actually store tomato with its optimal cooling temperature and extend the freshness, the quality, the water content, no discoloration for the next 21 days.
“Really what we are doing and what Heifer did was to support us to deploy eight of these cold hubs of 3tonnes capacity in the Southwest, and two of the 100tonnes capacity in the North Central. So we also have one going on in Jos at the moment and another one being built in Dan Magaji Market in Zaria. So in Jos we are doing 100tonnes capacity in Paringada Market. So all this is as a result of our partnership with Heifer International.”
While thanking Heifer International, Ikegwuonu, urged the traders in market to put the facility into good use. “Today we are totally grateful for the support that came to us from Heifer, and we want to provide this technology and service to the benefit of the retailers in Abat CBT Market; use this cold room, extend the shelf life of food, your fruits and tomatoes, your green beans, spring onions, carrot, anything you want to store, store it here, store it and keep it fresh, store it and make sure that you extend the shelf life, instead of keeping tomatoes for two days you can keep it for three weeks, the same content, the same colour, the same quality, the same weight. So this is a very critical infrastructure that has been provided to the market and I am advising the market to also use it, we are also advising them to protect the infrastructure, see it as their own, protect it as much as possible, because it will benefit them, it will benefit your income, and benefit your business.”
Honourable commissioner for Agriculture, Lagos State, Abisola Olusanya represented by the Director, Lagos Agricultural Training Institute, Mr Emmanuel Audu, spoke on what Lagos State is doing in the agriculture value chain. “What we are doing here today is of paramount importance to the ministry of agriculture. In 2021 we launched a document called the five-year agricultural and food systems roadmap to guide the development of agriculture in Lagos State. We realised that Lagos State produce just about 18% of the total food requirement, now about 50% of it also goes into what is called the post-harvest loss which means we are not producing enough and even at that 50% of what we are producing are wasted because of inappropriate handling, inappropriate logistics services, and inappropriate cold chain facilities.”
He said the launch of the document also seek to securing partnerships from private sector organizations and multilateral organisations to partner with government for specific interventions that would boost food production, support processing and advance food preservation in the state, and that is why Heifer International and Coldhubs have established this partnerships that is bringing about this facility.
He decried the fact that farmers work hard but they are still poor. He said “Farmers occupy the highest level, but farmers are poor, why is that so? They are people that are energetic, they dissipate energy, they work the field, work the land, yet are not deriving maximum benefit from their labour, why? Post-harvest loss. Farmers are stampeded into to sell their product due to inadequate storage facilities. So I am particularly glad this facility will help address the issue of economic loss to farmers which means farmers and traders can be assured of enhanced economic returns.”
Country Director, Heifer International Nigeria, Mr Rufus Idris, spoke on the partnership and contributions of his group to food storage. He said that his organization is an international development organization headquartered in United States of America with one major mission, and that mission is to end hunger and poverty. “This we have done for more than 78 years globally. You will agree with me that there is no way you can end hunger or you can end poverty without intervening in the agricultural space. In Nigeria our main aim is how do we solve the major problems affecting us in the agricultural sector? If we can address that you are sure that we can ensure food security, you are sure people can feed themselves, and that way they can end hunger. In agriculture we can create jobs and employment for people especially for our young people that currently rank among the highest unemployed people in this country today. We can create jobs, we can help farmers themselves increase their incomes, and ensure that you can sustain this income to ensure that they are now completely out of poverty, and that way we would say we have been able to address the issue of hunger and the issue of poverty as well.”
He said with the cold hub, the farmers and traders could actually increase the shelf life of their produce and reduce drastically post-harvest losses. “Today we are here to launch this hub that will help farmers and marketers of tomatoes, vegetables increase shelf life of their produce. We all know that 40% to 50% of farm produce in Nigeria currently goes to waste after being harvested, because there is no proper infrastructure to keep those things alive, keep them fresh for a longer period of time.
“So our partnership here today is to see that the food gets to the market and to ensure that for 24 days or more the food or tomato remains fresh, that way farmers, marketers, and traders can earn the money they required to earn from the tomato they purchased from farmers, and that way we can guarantee their income and not losing money because a lot go to waste. It will also reduce the pressure on the sellers to want to sell cheaply because of lack of storage facility,” he stated.
Samson Iwalei who is the market leader, Abat CBD, thanked Coldhubs management for bringing the facility to the market adding that the intervention has saved his colleagues the ordeal of travelling miles to store and preserve their perishable food materials. While Chinedu Nwadike a senior personnel with Coldhubs spoke on the post-harvest management education programme which involves meeting with the traders and farmers on the best way to utilize the cold rooms.
