How to Start Fish Farming in Nigeria

There are so many information on the internet on "How to Start Fish Farming in Nigeria" but few are detailed enough to really assist aspiring fish farmer to get started. I will be endeavor to make this article as detailed as possible and hope that other experienced fish farmer will add to it as we try to answer people's questions through commenting.

One of the most popular farming in Nigeria is fish farming and for good reasons. Gone are the days when the only means of getting fish is by catching it in the local rivers and ponds through trial and errors. Today, the modern farm practice has made it possible to grow fish in the farms and control the input.

If you are thinking of business to start now, I recommend you start Catfish Farming in Nigeria. If you are an existing farmer and you are looking for expanding your farm capacity, I'd encourage you add fish farming to your farm. Fish farming (especially catfish) is most compatible with poultry farming as you can use the poultry drops to make the feeds for your fish.

Benefits of Fish Farming

1. Fishery products is by far the most popular animal products in the market, constituting more than 60% of meat products in the Nigerian market.

2. Fish is one of the highest source of protein. Fish is a low-fat high quality protein that is filled with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins such as D and B2 (riboflavin). Fish is also very rich in calcium and phosphorus and is equally a great source of minerals, such as iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, and potassium.

3. Fish sells faster than any other animal products in the market and is relatively cheaper than meats, making it the number one choice when it comes to affordability.

4. Fish grows very fast as practices in fish farming makes it possible for farmers to increase the fastness of their fish growth by giving them certain feeds, ensuring that you harvest and sell within short period of time.

5. Fish is the biggest source of Omega-3 fatty acids which is extremely beneficial to human heart; Omega-3 helps to keep our heart and brain very healthy. Since bodies don't produce Omega-3 fatty acids, the only source through which we can get it is by what we eat, that is where fish comes to the rescue.

6. Fish farming is very profitable. With proper planning and good management, N3 million investment in fish farming could easily result to N4 million of pure profit within six months.

7. Fish farm does not cause any environmental hazard. Unlike poultry farming, you can setup fish farm anywhere, including residential areas. If you have a specious compound, you can easily setup a small fish farm within your backyard without any regulatory precaution.

Risks and Challenges in Fish Farming

1. Fish is very sensitive to manage and a slight mistake could result to degenerated growth of your fish or even death which may cause massive revenue loss.

2. Setting up fish farm is capital intensive, much more than that of poultry and snail farm. Setting up fish farm requires more careful planning and much capital input. A relatively small fish farm may take up to N500,000 to setup, while bigger ones takes millions of naira.

3. Due to the cost of production, fish produced from the farm is priced higher than those caught from the rivers and ponds by fishermen. Therefore, if there are good quantity of fisherman's fish in the market, you may find it difficult to sell as people would prefer the cheaper ones.

4. There is no byproduct in fishery unlike poultry where even the drop can be harvested and sold to other farmers and make extra profit. In fishery, all you get is the flesh. 

Types of Fish You Can Farm

Haven seen the benefits as well as the risks involved in fish farming, let's now proceed to decide which specie of fish we want to farm. Below are some of the most popular fish species that is suitable for Aquaculture.

1. Cat Fish - Even though Catfish is not the most popular fish in Nigeria, this fish species is by far the most cultivated in Nigeria. One thing good about catfish is that it is one of the easiest fish species to cultivate. So, people naturally flow to the direction of fish specie they found to be the easiest to cultivate.

2. Tilapia - Second most popular fish in Nigeria's aquaculture industry, Tilapia is a fish species that lives in fresh shallow water. Tilapia is very easy to cultivate and very popular in Nigerian market, it reproduces very rapidly and grows fast too.

3. Mackerel (Titus) -  This is by far the most popular fish in Nigerian market but so sad it's not farmed. All Mackerel Fish are "wild caught" but some farmer in Nigeria are considering the possibility of creating artificial salty water that will be similar to sea water where mackerel can only survive. Can this deep blue sea fish specie be cultivated artificially? Only time will tell but for now, you have to focus your attention to Catfish and Tilapia.

What You Need to Get Started

1. Secure a Land - Any location is good since fish doesn't cause any environmental disturbance. Look for land where you can get it cheap and buy. Depending on the capacity you wants to operate on, half plot of land is just good enough for average fish farm.

However, you may go for something bigger like full plot or two if you can afford it probably for convenience sake. If you already have a compound with leftover space you thing can accommodate two or three ponds, you may use it.

2. Construct Ponds - You need to engage the service of expert pond construction engineer or you go to another fish farm to get the specification and construction requirements. The plumbing work must be properly done to ensure proper drainage.

Example of what fish ponds looks like. You need to visit fish farms to see it

3. Dig a Borehole - Adequate water supply is the lifeblood of fish farm and lack of it may result to disaster because water need to be changed on regular interval. Naturally available sources of water such as borehole and river water is the most suitable. Rain water and tap water from chemically treated source is not recommended for fish cultivation.

4. Overhead Tank - This is the water reservoir from which water is supplied to your ponds. This tank has to be connected to your ponds through plumbing system to make it convenient for water to flow into your ponds when needed.

5. Juvenile Fish - Get your juvenile from another farm that specializes in supplying it. You need to go for the high yield specie of catfish or tilapia and make sure you are getting it from a healthy farm.

6. Get Training - Not the kind of training you get from one day seminars; you need to get attached to a fish farm for proper apprenticeship. For you to properly learn this trade, you need at least two months training on this.

Remember that your investment is at stake, trial and error is not good in business except you have unlimited funds to experiment with.

Feasibility Study for a Standard Fish Farm

This feasibility study prepared for a catfish farm capacity of 10,000 and fingerlings of high breed catfish where to be stocked. The expenses from pond construction to marketing is considered. The farm is to have 10 concrete ponds of flow through system and each pond is to contains 1,000 stocked catfish.

Cost of constructing each pond is as follows.

Each pond is 3m x 2.5m by 1.4m, each pond consumes 210 blocks and each bag of cement for 30 blocks. Hence 210 x 10 = 2,100 blocks. 2,100/30 = 70 bags of cement needed. 2000 x 70 = 140,000 naira.

4trips of sand used =7,000x4 = N28,000

2trips of gravel = 32,000x 2 = N64,00

Cost of labour = N150,00

Cost of plumbing (inlet and outlet facility) = N100,000.

Cost of bore hole = N150,000.

Cost of treatment = N50,000.

Cost of high breed fingerlings 30x10,000 = N300,000.

Cost of feeding from day one to maturity stage is 200 bags of foreign feed = N1,000,000.

After the average weight of the fish was 1.7kg. And it was sold at 800 naira each. The output was 800x9800 fishes, due to 200 mortality. 800 x 9800 = N7,840,000.

Input is N3.25'million. The profit is N4.59 million after six months of culture." Following this cost analysis, you can easily invest N3 million and expect a massive turnover of N4 million with six months it will take for you to harvest and sell.

There is no doubt that fish farming is very lucrative and profitable in Nigeria. You need to get it right by drawing complete business plan and following it to the later. You need to apply good management skills and follow the acceptable standard. If you do all these, you are sure to make good profit from your fish farming business in Nigeria.

For more detail on how to set up your own fish farm contact 

Farmdoksltd on

Phone number: 08077495387
Email:  famdoksltd@gmail.com  

Source: Wealthcreation 

INVESTING IN AGRICULTURE: BABARIANS AT THE FARM GATE

IN THE next 40 years, humans will need to produce more food than they did in the previous 10,000 put together. But with sprawling cities gobbling up arable land, agricultural productivity gains decreasing, and demand for biofuels increasing, supply is not keeping up with demand. Clever farmers, scientists and entrepreneurs are bursting with ideas. But they need money to make this jump.

Financiers more often found buying and selling companies have cottoned on to the opportunity. Farm gates have traditionally been closed to capital markets: nine in ten farms are held by families. But demography is forcing a shift: the average age of farmers in Europe, America and New Zealand is now in the late fifties. They often have no successor, because offspring do not want to farm or cannot afford to buy out family members. In addition, adopting new technologies and farming at ever-greater scale require the sort of capital few farmers have, even after years of bumper crop prices.

Institutional investors such as pension funds see farmland as fertile ground to plough, either doing their own deals or farming them out to specialist funds. Some act as landlords by buying land and leasing it out. Others buy plots of low-value land, such as pastures, and upgrade them to higher-yielding orchards. Investors who are keen on even bigger risks and rewards flock to places such as Brazil, Ukraine and Zambia, where farming techniques are often still underdeveloped and potential productivity gains immense.

Farmland has been a great investment over the past 20 years, certainly in America, where annual returns of 12% caused some to dub it “gold with a coupon”. In America and Britain, where tax incentives have distorted the market, it outperformed most major asset classes over the past decade, and with low volatility to boot (see chart). Those going against the grain warn of a land-price bubble. Believers argue that increasing demand and shrinking supply—as well as urbanisation, poor soil management and pressure on water systems that are threats to farmland—mean the investment case is on solid ground.

It is not just the asset appreciation and yields that attract outside capital, says Bruce Sherrick of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: as important is the diversification to portfolios that farmland offers. It is uncorrelated with paper assets such as stocks and bonds, has proven relatively resistant to inflation, and is less sensitive to economic shocks (people continue to eat even during downturns) and to interest-rate hikes. Moreover, in the aftermath of the financial crisis investors are reassured by assets they can touch and sniff.

Some are already getting their boots dirty. In 2009 Hassad, part of Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund, asked Bydand Global Agriculture to buy nearly 50 farms in Australia and merge them into a single investment portfolio. Terrapin Palisades, a private-equity firm, bought a dairy company and some vineyards and tomato fields in California, and converted all to grow almonds, whose price has soared as the Chinese have gone nuts for them. Such conversions require up-front capital and the ability to survive without returns for years.

The private-equity approach can take the form of simple improvements, such as changing irrigation from antiquated dykes and canal networks to automatic spray systems: these are the equivalent of picking low-hanging fruit. Pricey robots can boost milk per cow by 10-15%. Using “big-data” analytics to plant and cultivate seeds can push crop yields up 5%. “This is an industry where the gap between the top and bottom quartile is greater than anywhere else,” says Detlef Schoen of Aquila Capital, an alternative-investment firm.

And yet the 36 agriculture-focused funds, with $15 billion under management, pale in comparison to the 144 funds focused on infrastructure ($89 billion) and 473 targeting real estate ($163 billion), according to Preqin, a data provider. TIAA-CREF, an American financial group, is a market leader with $5 billion in farmland, from Australia to Brazil, and its own agricultural academic centre at the University of Illinois. Canadian pension funds and Britain’s Wellcome Trust are among those bolstering their farming savvy.

Most investors are put off by the sector’s peculiar risks and complexities. Weather, commodity prices, soil health, water access, dietary fads and animal health are not the forte of the average pension-fund investment officer. Political risks abound: cash-strapped governments in Europe and America may (belatedly) get around to cutting farm subsidies. In poor countries, land titles may give outsiders dubious protection—if those countries even allow foreign ownership of land in the first place.

Some liken the sector to real estate and infrastructure 20 years ago. It lacks indices, consultant reports and track records. But unlike skyscrapers or pipelines, farming offers few of the multi-billion-dollar deals that are needed to entice mega-investors.

For more money to flow in, financiers and farmers will have to learn a lot more about each other. Money managers need to get their hands dirty and find out more about crops. Only a handful have the expertise needed; farmers gleefully share stories of Wall Street types wondering how chicks are planted. And farmers can do more to attract capital, for example by seeking out financial deals where investors’ incentives are aligned with their own, such as through joint ventures.

Investors need to separate the wheat from the chaff, too. Farm investing requires patience; it is ill-suited to flipping and trading. But those willing to climb over the barriers could reap big rewards. The investment thesis is as simple as they come, as Mark Twain realised long ago: “Buy land, they’re not making it any more.”

source: www.economist.com

Africa: Improving Food Security Requires the Upscaling of Public Private Partnerships (ppps)

OPINION

Mistrust between public and private actors needs to end to implement successful PPPs.

"Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) - a very fashionable buzzword - can play a critical role in food security but turning them into an effective operational approach is another story. There is still a lot of mistrust between public and private actors. PPPs that are successful in both local and foreign settings, as well as small and large private operators, are not easily developed and implemented," says Francesco Rampa, the head of Food Security for the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).

He added: "Improving food and nutrition security worldwide, and in particular transforming agriculture in Africa, requires not only more effective and consistent policies and investments, but also the scaling up of inclusive multi-stakeholder partnerships."

In Africa, tensions are increasing between African smallholders - who believe producing organic food via multi-cropping is the solution for better food and nutrition security - and foreign companies - who tend to believe only large-scale mono-cropping can produce enough food, with fortification providing the supplements for improving nutrition, if or where needed;" he continues.

"Also questionable is whether most PPPs are commercially sustainable, with most examples of PPPs in African agriculture being pilots, strongly motivated by corporate social responsibility, and whether these models can be upscaled to serve base-of-the-pyramid consumers in a profitable and sustainable way. Finally, there are growing concerns about the risk that donors' initiatives to involve investors from their own countries in African agriculture PPPs are used as self-interested economic diplomacy at the expense of sustainable development objectives and local private sector growth.

Source: Allafrica.com

Post harvest Loss of fruits and vegetables in Nigeria

TERM PAPER

 ON  

THE PRESENT DAY

SITUATION OF POST-HARVEST LOSS OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN NIGERIA

    

                                                                  JUNE 2009

1.0   INTRODUCTION

       Nigeria is blessed with a tropical climate which favours the production of root and tuber crops as well as fruits and vegetables, majority of which are staple foods. The United Nations General Assembly resolution of September 1975 focused world-wide attention on the problem of post-harvest food losses and called for concerted action to reduce these losses in the following words: "The further reduction of post-harvest food losses in developing countries should be undertaken as a matter of priority with a view to reaching at least a 50% reduction by 1985. All countries and competent international organizations should co-operate financially and technically in the effort to achieve this objective".

The above statement vividly describes the problem mankind has always had to preserve food supply after he has produced it. The loss of foods in the post-harvest system is not new; it has always been a problem for mankind.

 Fruits and vegetables are the major source of vitamins A and C, a good source of calcium and iron, and they supply part of the requirements for a number of other minor nutrients. The total annual production of horticultural crops in developing countries was put at 620 million tones which is 85% of the cereal production. This surpasses the relative world average where horticultural crop production is only 70% of the cereal production. These high production figures indicate the important role that horticultural crops play in the economy of developing countries.

In addition, horticultural crops add variety, enjoyment and a sense of satisfaction with the diet because of their appealing colour, flavours and textures.

On all of these counts- nutrition, economics, acceptability- horticultural crops play a major role in Nigeria, amply justifying the increasing urgency to asses the extent of post harvest losses. This will help in conserving/ managing food supply and possibly alleviate hunger and malnutrition.

 1.1 Definition of terms

Since the ramifications of food and the food supply spread right through society it is necessary to define exactly what is meant by the term "post-harvest loss". The working definition given below is based on that developed by Bourne (1977).

"POST-HARVEST" begins at the moment of separation of the edible commodity from the plant that produced it by a deliberate human act with the intention of starting it on its way to the table. The post-harvest period ends when the food comes into the possession of the final consumer

"LOSS" means any change in the availability, edibility, wholesomeness or quality of the food that prevents it from being consumed by people.

VEGETABLE

          The term "vegetable" is usually used to designate the tender edible shoots, leaves, fruits and roots of plant that are eaten whole or in part, raw or cooked, as supplement to starchy foods and meat.

The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation (Wikipedia; encyclopedia).

         Vegetable include a broad variety of edible plant parts which can be eaten cooked (potatoes, pepper) or raw (lettuce, tomatoes) during the principal course of a meal. They can be grouped into 3 main categories namely:

·        Seeds and pods e.g. beans, pea, and corn

·        Bulbs, root and tubers e.g. onion, carrot

·      Flowers, stems and leaves e.g. cauliflower, celosia and Amaranthus.

FRUITS

 These are seed-bearing structure of a flowering plant. A fruit is actually a ripened ovary, a component of the flower’s female reproductive structure. Depending on the type of plant, the mature ovary may form a juicy, fleshy fruit, such as a mango, apple, plum, or blueberry. Or it may develop into a dry fruit, such chestnut, or almond. Grains of wheat, corn, or rice also are considered dry fruits.

Certain foods commonly termed vegetables, including tomatoes, squash, peppers, and eggplant, technically are fruits because they develop from the ovary of a flower.  

1.2 Major Fruits and Vegetables Cultivated In Nigeria Based On Ecological Distribution

Transition zone: Egg plant, Orange, Banana, Pineapple, Mango, Citrus, Avocado, Corchorus, Talinum, Melon, Celosia.

Rainforest zone: Cauliflower.

Rainforest zone: Cauliflower, Melon, Coffee, Melon, Watermelon, Orange, Pineapple, Mango, Citrus, Onion, Amaranth spinach, Pumpkin, Bitter leaf, Cashew, Banana, Yam, Pawpaw, Waterleaf, Cucumber, Okra, Tomato, Cocoa.

Sahel Savanna: Amaranthus, Okra, Lettuce, Pumpkin, Watermelon, Onion, Pepper, Cowpea, Carrot.

Guinea Savanna: Cauliflower, Coffee, Tomato, Pepper, Yam, Cassava, Cowpea, Roselle.

Sudan Savanna: Cauliflower, Mango, Coffee, Onion, Carrot, Tomato, Pepper, Okra, Garlic.

 

  1.3 Seasons of production

Seasonal climatic variations prelude the continuous production of any vegetable. Crops suitable for cool season variation include:

Lettuce, Cabbage, Potato, Onions, Lima beans, Garden pea. Certain vegetables species are tolerant of wet condition provided surface drainage is achieved. These include; water spinach, cabbage and cucumber will tolerate wet soil and not inundation. Some vegetables are well adapted to the north due to there low level of water requirement e.g. Onion, Carrot. In fact, the variation of the consumption, cultivation of the various vegetables is majorly determined by ecological factors such as rainfall, sunlight duration e.t.c

2.0 CAUSES OF POSTHARVEST LOSSES

There are so many causes for losses in the post-harvest food chain that it helps to classify them into 2 groups

A. PRIMARY CAUSES OF LOSS are those causes that directly affect the food.        They may be classified into the following groups

a.     Biological. Consumption of food by rodents, birds, monkeys and other large animals causes direct disappearance of food. Sometimes the level of contamination of food by the excreta, hair and feathers of animals and birds is so high that the food is condemned for human consumption. Insects cause both weight losses through consumption of the food and quality losses.

b.     Microbiological. Damage to stored foods by fungi and bacteria. Micro-organisms usually directly consume small amount of the food but they damage the food to the point that it becomes unacceptable because of rotting or other defects. Toxic substances elaborated by molds (known as mycotoxins), cause some food to be condemned and hence lost.

c.      Chemical. Many of the chemical constituents naturally present in stored foods spontaneously react causing loses of colour, flavour, texture and nutritional value. An example is the Mallard relation' that causes browning and discoloration in dried fruits and other product. There can also be accidental or deliberate contamination of food with harmful chemicals such as pesticides or obnoxious chemicals such as lubricating oil.

d.     Biochemical reactions. A number of enzyme-activated reactions can occur in foods in storage giving rise to off-flavours, discoloration and softening. One example of this problem is the unpleasant flavours that develop in frozen vegetables that have not been blanched to inactivate these enzymes before freezing.

e.      Mechanical. Bruising, cutting' excessive pooling or trimming of horticultural products are causes of loss.

f.       Physical. Excessive or insufficient heat or cold can spoil foods. Improper atmosphere in closely confined storage at times causes losses.

g.     Physiological. Natural respiratory losses which occur in all living organisms account for a significant level of weight lose. A reduction in nutritional level and consumer acceptance may also arise with these changes.

Microbiological, mechanical and physiological factors cause most of the losses in perishable crops.

B. SECONDARY CAUSES OF LOSS are those that load to conditions that encourage a primary cause of loss. They are usually the result of inadequate or non-assistant capital expenditures, technology and quality control. Some examples are:

1.  Inadequate harvesting, packaging and handling skills.

2. Lack of adequate containers for the transport and handling of perishables.

3.     Storage facilities inadequate to protect the food.

4.     Transportation inadequate to move the food to market before it spoils.

5.     Inadequate refrigerated storage.

2.1         Sites of losses

Losses may occur anywhere from the point where the food has been harvested or gathered up to the point of consumption. For the sake of convenience the losses can be broken down into the following sub-headings:

a.     Harvest. The separation of the commodity from the plant that produced it.

b.     Preparation. The preliminary separation or extraction of the edible from the non edible portion.

c.      Preservation is the prevention of lose and spoilage of foods. For example, the sun-drying of fruit, the use of refrigeration.

d.     Processing  

e.      Storage

f.       Transportation. All forms of transportation are used to convey foods.

2.2     Extent of losses

 The extent of losses is highly variable depending on a number of conditions. Stable foods such as cereal grains can be stored in good condition for several years, whereas perishable foods such as fruit and vegetables spoil quickly unless given special treatment such as canning and freezing. The longer the time the food is stored the more opportunity there is for losses of all kinds to occur.

In Nigeria losses may be fairly high during harvesting because the agricultural machinery that is used to harvest the crops leaves some of the commodity in the field and mechanically damages some of it (That is any is available). However, harvest losses are usually lower because most of the crop is hand picked. The amount of material rejected is less because the expectation of quality and uniformity is generally lower than for developed countries.

Pantastico (1977) pointed out that post-harvest losses in developing countries often exceed production losses and cites as an example the following figures for losses is the Philippines:

Crop	Production (m. tons)	Production Value ($)	Percentage Loss	Loss Value ($)
Fruits	2,763,443	403,909,220	28.1	113,498,490
Vegetables	1, 640, 541	248, 564, 310	42. 2	104,894,130
Total	4,403,984	652,473,530	_	218,392,620

2.3 Effects of the environment on post harvest losses

The environmental conditions under which foods are stored and processed have a major effect on the keeping quality of the foods and the amount that is lost. The major environmental influences on the keeping quality of foods in Nigeria are:

Temperature: In general, the higher the temperature the shorter the storage life of horticultural products and the greater the amount of lose within a given time, as most factors that destroy the produce or lower its quality occur at a faster rate as the temperature increases. Nigeria has temperature as high as 40C. Most of the fruits and vegetables are produced in remote areas and are transported under this high temperature. Hence the high coefficient of post harvests losses.

Humidity: There is movement of water vapour between a food and its surrounding atmosphere in the direction towards equilibrium water activity in the food and the atmosphere. Most fruit handlers in Nigeria are quite aware of this but could not help situation in cases of high quantity of commodity handing, giving a high damage.

2.4 EXTENT OF LOSS OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

Tomato

In Nigeria, studies in 1974 and 1975 showed that up to 21% of tomato fruit loss in the field with an additional 20% rotted in transit and in the market. The losses in the field are caused by a combination of several pests (Onesirosan and Fatunla 1976).

Olorunda and Aworh (1983) established that mechanical damage account to a large extent for losses of tomato and pepper and to a small extent of Onions transported from Northern Nigeria to Southern Nigeria.

Cassava

The cassava roots have no natural dormancy and are highly susceptible to deterioration. The physiological deterioration, of which the symptoms are tissue discoloration, can commence as soon as 24 hours after harvest.

Plantain and Banana

In Nigeria, the most evident post-harvest losses are registered at the producer level in enclave sites during the rainy season (N'da Adopo, 1993). These losses should be less than 35 percentage) in developing countries as previously estimated by FAO (1987).

According to Treche (1997), 69.4% of plantains and other cooking bananas are used for human consumption while 8.0% are used for animal feed. Post-harvest losses and transformed quantities in the world are 11.5% and 11%, respectively.

2.5 NON GRAIN VEGETABLE LOSS IN LESS DEVELOP COUNTRIES

Commodity                                production                                  Estimated loss

                                                   In “000 tones                                             in %                

Potatoes                                       26,909                                          5-40

Sweet potato                                17,630                                         35-95

Carrot                                           577                                              44

Cassava                                        103,486                                       10

Yam                                              20,000                                        10-60

Onion                                            6,474                                          16-35

Tomatoes                                      12,755                                         20-50

Plantain                                         18,301                                        35-90

Cabbage                                        3,036                                          37

Banana                                          36,898                                        20-80

Papaya                                          931                                            40-98

Citrus                                            22,040                                       23-33

Avocado                                       1,020                                         43

Apples                                          3,677                                         14                .

Source:         Adapted from National Academy of Science (1978).

2.6  STRORAGE STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS.

1.     Sacks and nets: Sacks and nets are of various sizes, description, and materials are in wide spread use for the domestic and regional marketing of any root crops such as sweet potato, yam, carrot, pumpkins and fruits, including citrus. Cheapness is the only advantage that sack as over other forms of packaging. It occupies very little space itself; this gives some advantage to the shippers in the regional trades. The lack of rigidity of sacks means that they offer no support for produce and when stacked do not prevent compression of the produce.

2.     Basket: These are relatively cheap and are made from locally available and readily renewable resources. Due to there spherical shape they may be rolled around if they are too heavy to lift. The basket offers extremely little protection to the protection to the produce when several baskets or other containers are stacked on top of each other.

3.     Wooden crates: Widely used by the hawkers and traffickers in the inter-island trade in fresh produce. There is no standard size and designs in current use. Untreated wood easily become contaminated with decay organisms and may be difficult to wash effectively. Rough surfaces of the wood may injure the produce unless it is lined.

4.     Fiber board cartons: These are made of solid or comigated fiber board construction of various thickness and resilience depending on the produce to be contained and the market to be supplied. Fiber board cartons are not re-usable; they are easily damaged by water and rough handling unless impregnated with wax.

5.     Plastic crates: These are manufactured to a wide variety of specifications. They have a long life span allowing there use on a return for many journeys.

Storage of fruits and vegetables using evaporative cooling systems.

       Ceramics pot fired at 600ºC have been used to evaporatively cool water to about 15ºC below ambient temperature. The pot is a double walled container, with the outer shell filled with water which cools the container and its content by an evaporative process (see fig.1). Also local and cheap but effective method of storage called “Portable evaporator coolant structure” developed by Natural Stored product research institute (NSPRI) Lagos (see fig 2) Kuku 1985 as helped tremendously in keeping post harvest indices at a lower rate.

 Picture source: Wikihow

Evaporative storage system

             

 3.0   CONCLUSION

      Nigeria has ample rainfall for the cultivation of all kinds of fruits and vegetables, such as plantains, citrus fruits, sweet potato, cashew, pumpkin, amaranths e.t.c.  The country is also blessed with water bodies to ensure all year round availability of these crops.

We might as a consequence of all these indices, be inclined to conclude that the basic ingredients for achievement of self sufficiency of food production are in place. But factors of post harvest loss among others prove this wrong.

      Although, it is very difficult to quantitatively describe the actual magnitude of loss due to post harvest wastages. It is however very clear that, losses recorded especially during the season of production of the various fruits and vegetables are considerablely high, well above 50%. A number of authors (Hall, 1968, Agboola, 1980, Ene & Okoye,1981, Ene 1986) drew attention to the urgent necessity to match every effort at increasing crop production with equal effort to save harvested crops from deterioration and other post harvest losses. As such, the much desired increase in food availability in Nigeria will be achieved.

What is Agribusiness ?

Agribusiness 

What then does  “agribusiness” means? 

The term “agribusiness” simply refers to the breadth of businesses engaged in all aspects of agriculture, from the provision of inputs such as seeds and fertiliser, to farming, processing, marketing, distribution and retail sales. It emphasises the notion that for agriculture to be sustainable, it needs to be viewed as a business.

Agribusiness is the only way of increasing and developing agriculture in Nigeria. African farmers have lived and worked as subsistence farmers for far too long. At the subsistence level, we have shrinking and depleted farms, an ageing population with limited interest from the youth to engage in agriculture ; there is an urgent need to explore the potential profitability of every agriculture investment and to determine whether it makes financial sense to proceed in the short, medium and long-term.  

RABBITARY

In Nigeria, low animal protein intake has remained a major nutritional problem, especially for the low income and non-wage earners (Amaefule and Obioha, 2005; Akinola, 2009). There is therefore an urgent need to develop rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) production as a cheap source of animal protein to bridge the wide gap existing between animal protein supply and consumption. Rabbit farming is a new area in animal farming and is adapted to both rural and urban centres, tropical and temperate regions of the world alike. Its meat is purely white, bristle and palatable, highly nutritious and a convenient source of high quality protein (Okorie, 1997). Rabbit meat has been found to be nutritious, low in fat and fine-grained and it provides a suitable alternative to poultry meat.

Casady, (1978) reported that rabbit meat has high biological value with high protein (21%), low fat (10%), low cholesterol and sodium while Damron, (2006) showed that a cooked piece of rabbit meat is high in protein (56%), low in fat (9%), low in cholesterol, sodium and calories (8%) and contain 28% phosphorus, 13% iron, 16% zinc, 14% riboflavin, 6% thiamin, 35% B12 and 48% niacin.

The domestic rabbit is as efficient as other farm animals in converting feed to meat for human consumption. It has since been identified as an economic livestock for small-scale rural farmers/dwellers, capable of producing about 47kg of meat, enough to solely meet the animal protein requirements of a medium size family (Abdulmalik, 1994; Hassan and Owolabi, 1996). Rabbits can be kept in the backyard in small unit of 2-4 does (females) and a buck (male) to supply the family with additional source of animal protein (Komolafe, 1990).

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References

Casady, R. B. (1978). Advisory leaflet on rabbit meat production. Value and use of rabbit. Manual Paper Presented at the Conference on Rabbit Meat Production. Malta. 10 - 13th March, pp. 179.

Damron, W. S. (2006). Introduction to Animal Science, Global, Biological, Social and Industry Perspective (3rd Ed.). U.S.A: Pearson Educational Inc

Konolafe, O. R. (1990). Effects of typical leaf types on haematological parameter of growing New Zealand Rabbits. Journal of Living Production in Nigeria, 149(3), 89-96

Amaefule, K. U. and Obioha, F. U. (2005). Performance of pullet chicks fed raw or processed pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seed meal diets. Live Reserved for rural Development.

Okorie, A.U. (1997). Requirement in protein and Amino Acid by rabbits. New York: A. A.