NAN-HE-14
Food
By Aminu Ahmed Garko
Minna, Nov. 23, 2017 ( NAN) Prof. Peter Idah of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, has observed that tackling post harvest losses will guarantee food security in the country.
Idah made the observation in a statement by Mrs Lydia Legbo, the institution’s Public Relations officer and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Thursday.
It reported the don as saying this at the 58 Inaugural Lecture titled: “The War Against Post Harvest Losses In Fresh Fruits and Vegetables: My Role,”
at the university’s Lecture Theatre.
“Increase in food production alone cannot ensure the needed food security if Post Harvest Losses (PHL) are not reduced to the barest minimum,” he said.
The Professor of Agriculture and Bio-resources Engineering, said post harvest loss was the degradation in both quantity and quality of food from harvest to consumption.
He highlighted the quality losses to include those that affected nutrient composition, acceptability and edibility of a given product.
On the other hand, he said quantitative losses were the the amount of a product and these losses were more common in the developing countries.
The don noted that the primary challenges in post harvest losses in fruits and vegetables were during transportation stage of the supply chain, which included bad roads and lack of refrigerated transport systems.
The lecturer stressed that generally, there was low consumption of fruits and vegetables in developing countries.
He called for high consumption of the agricultural produce as it would reduce many chronic diseases such as stroke, cardiovascular disease,
metabolic disease and cancer.
Idah disclosed that the high level of mechanical damage and diseases were clear indication of the need to improve the techniques of handling of perishable food items like fruits and vegetables.
He added that the journey from farm to the consumer was extremely complex.
The scholar selected fresh tomato fruits as the focus of his lecture.
According to him, fruit is very important to the Nigerian economy as it is a good source of Vitamins C and A.
He also found that most of the losses resulted from mechanical damage, while calling for the provision of adequate and appropriate handling
devices that would minimise the incidence of mechanical damage to the fresh produce on transit.
He recommended the need for packing houses to serve as places for pre-shipment activities as practised in developed countries and that efforts should be made to produce customised vehicles for transportation of fruits and vegetables in the country.
He said there was the need for government to rehabilitate roads in the country, to reduce mechanical damage of fresh produce due to vibration and impact during transportation.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Musbau Akanji, said it was such occasions that made the university tick and that the institution was blessed with erudite scholars who were eager to showcase their contributions to development of the country. (NAN)
AAG/IA
Edited by Idris Abdulrahman