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With 37.77 per cent food inflation, 40 per cent post-harvest losses, WALE AKINSELURE, in this piece, looks at the place of silos in guaranteeing food security in the country.
Earlier in the year, the United States Agency for International Development reported that 50 per cent of fresh agricultural produce in Nigeria is lost at the post-harvest stage. The Mission Director, USAID, Melissa Jones, at the First Post-Harvest Connect Conference and Exhibition, held in Abuja, said such losses are partly responsible for the rising food inflation in the country which is now 37.77 per cent. Melissa said, “Currently, Nigeria post-harvest losses are almost 50 per cent for fresh produce. It is critical that we all come together to focus on ensuring that the hard work of farmers is not lost in post-harvest and passes to the consumers who are in need,” At the conference, Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria said the focus of the country has been predominantly on food production while post-harvest activities have been overlooked. Back in 2021, the international non-governmental organization, Action Aid, stated that Nigeria’s post-harvest loss increased to about N3.5trillion annually. The Food and Agriculture Organisation also identified post-harvest loss as one of the problems affecting economic growth globally. Post-harvest loss is also a contributory factor to the present cost of food in Nigeria. Reports indicate that Nigeria loses 20 to 40 percent of its rice at harvest points and market stages.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, post-harvest losses occur at various stages from production, to post-harvest handling, marketing, distribution and processing. These include losses in quantity and tuber quality, arising from physical damage, rodent attack, fungal and bacterial diseases, and physiological processes such as sprouting, dehydration and respiration. Various factors contribute to the present about 40 percent post-harvest loss rate in Nigeria. There are also factors that include climate change, inconsistent government policies, poor roads, lack of market access, absence of off-takers, unavailability of financial support for farmers, poor maintenance of storage and handling facilities, poor storage facilities and lack of infrastructure.
To address the challenge of storage and guarantee all-year-round supply of food to Nigerians, the Federal Government in 2009 constructed 33 silos. Silos are meant for storing grains against periods of poor harvest, scarcity, emergencies. Grain storage plays an indispensable role in the agricultural industry, acting as the linchpin between harvest and market or processing. By safeguarding crops after they’re harvested, storage facilities ensure that the grain remains in optimal condition, ready for sale or further refinement.
These tall, cylindrical structures, traditionally made of concrete or steel, are designed to store large quantities of grain in bulk. With their airtight design, silos effectively shield the grain from external elements, ensuring that the quality remains intact for prolonged periods. Silos serve as the protective shield of grains against the onslaught of external factors like moisture, pests, fungal attacks which can cause grains to rapidly deteriorate in quality.
Silos are a central part of the National Strategic Grains Reserve which aims to stockpile strategic food grains to ensure food security, stabilize prices, buffer stock management. The 33 silos constructed by the federal government had a storage capacity of about 1.3million metric tonnes.
The silos vary from 25,000 metric tons to 100,000 metric tons capacity in states like Ekiti, Kebbi, Zamfara, Borno, Imo, FCT, Yobe, Bauchi, Osun, Nasarawa, Taraba, Ogun, Anambra, Kogi, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa, Kano, Ebonyi, Gombe, Edo, Oyo, Benue, Niger, Cross River, Katsina. The silos were meant to store rice, beans, maize, soya beans, millet, wheat, and other food items. Recognising the underutilization of its silos, the federal government in 2017 commenced the process to concession 22 out of its 33 silos across the country. Government said the concession of the silos would ensure availability of affordable grains across the country. By 2018, several federal government owned silos were concessioned, for example, the one in Ibadan, Oyo State was leased to Flour Mills.
Over the years, however, many of the silos have suffered underutilisation while some have been concessioned. Some stakeholders hold that most of the silos in the country operate below 10 per cent utilisation capacity as they are wrongly located, especially concentrated in urban areas, and bedeviled by technical expertise gaps, and limited access to funding for construction and maintenance. Many silos are either not operational or underutilised due to poor management, debilitating technical issues, lack of integration with local farming activities and insufficient infrastructure to transport and process grains.
A few silos, particularly in major grain-producing areas like Kano, Minna and Makurdi are in limited use, primarily during peak harvest seasons or when government agencies actively procure and store grains. Some silos, particularly those in regions with lower agricultural output or logistical challenges are either idle or non-functional, awaiting better management and operational frameworks.
State-owned silos have also suffered similar fate as those federal owned. In recent years, the South-South zonal chapter of the Maize Association of Nigeria frowned at the condition of the silos owned by the Rivers State Government. The association expressed worry that lack of maintenance has rendered the few existing state government-owned grain silos inactive. Mentioning that there were silos at Rumuodomanya, Obi/Akpor Local Government Area developed by the state, the association lamented that the silo remained without grains and abandoned due to lack of maintenance.
In Oyo State, the wait for a state-owned silo is now 11 years old. People in Oyo and Awe towns were particularly excited when the late former governor Abiola Ajimobi promised that an automated grain silo was soon to be completed. The people of Oyo town were particularly glad as the contract for construction of the 10,000 metric tons silo was awarded to Rahvet International Limited, owned by their son, Mufutau Raheem. The project then began with the contractor putting in place the foundation upon which the silo equipment would be installed. However, the project suffered abandonment. The contractor, in conversations with The PUNCH, lamented that the silo equipment was on its way from China to Oyo when COVID-19 struck.
The outbreak, he noted, stalled the project. Investigations further revealed that the project continuation was also stalled by legal battles between Rahvet International Limited and First bank Nigeria Plc over issues of negligence, wrong entries, bank charges and demurrage charges. The company also had court battles with the late Alaafin of Oyo, the Oyo State Government under the late Abiola Ajimobi administration which further delayed the project. Upon his assumption of office in 2019, Governor Seyi Makinde reached an out-of-court settlement with the contractor to proceed with the project. The Makinde government had then allotted the sum of N300 million for the contractor to complete the project. Asked where things stand, Mufutau Raheem said there was green light and with COVID-19 subsided, the silo equipment would soon arrive for installation.
With the gaps left by the federal and state governments, there exists some private-owned silos while farmers and traders of grains now resort to self-help, though at the expense of self-help. Various kinds of chemicals are used to preserve food crops. These chemicals are applied devoid of recommended standard procedures, putting consumers of food at risk. Meanwhile, there remains health concerns as chemicals are applied to extend grains’ shelf life. Due to unavailability of storage facilities, and the high cost of storage in the private-owned storage facilities, some resort to preserving their produce with chemicals. There are those who argue that lots of grains stored in silos are preserved with heavy, toxic chemicals which sometimes make them unhealthy for consumption. Some of such grains are consumed locally as they fall short of international safety standards and are rejected at the point of export after discovery of chemical residue in them.
Those Nigerians wary of the fact that using chemicals leave behind toxic residues resort to traditional methods of food grains preservation and storage. Some traditional methods adopted to preserve grains include solarisation which the process of heating grains in the sun. The grains are spread on bare grounds, polythene, tarpaulin, bamboo mat, roadsides, rooftops to reduce the most infestive agents. Specially raised barns also constructed above a slow burning fire to allow the grains remain dry. Smallholder farmers usually store food grain crops above the kitchen fire in the farm hut or in the open where high temperature may kill developing larvae in the seeds. Cribs are also constructed and have well-ventilated sides made of straw, palm leaves, bamboo or wire netting to allow for natural ventilation. Metal or plastic drums, storage bags are also used. Mud silo, thatch silo, plastic silo, bamboo house, mud rhombus are also traditional methods of preserving grains more commonly adopted in the Northern part of the country. Some preserve yams in thatched houses for adequate ventilation, yam barns, while others use chemicals.
“We don’t have storage facilities here, but it is not a problem for me because I normally dry and also use chemicals to preserve my harvesting,” Victoria Chinyere, a farmer in Ebonyi State, said.
Stakeholders in the agriculture sector attribute the underutilisation of silos in Nigeria to inadequate production. They note that government has found it difficult to store grains as the production is not enough for consumption let alone having surplus to be stored. A Professor of Agriculture Engineering at the University of Ibadan, Emilolorun Aiyelari said the silos were underutilized as Nigeria was not producing enough grains.
“If we are producing enough grains, they will be stored. For years, the silos in the South are empty because there is no surplus production. The silos are not been used because we are not producing enough. The one we have in the University of Ibadan, we are not storing there, and when you don’t use, it goes bad. That is the problem of such facilities. The silos are not being used because of inadequate food production. If they are not being used, some parts of the silo rust and they do not function again if not maintained. Also, if you have those silos filled with grains, the prices of goods would arbitrarily increase on a daily basis. Regulating prices of goods was also the intention of government in taking from farmers and storing these farm produce.”
For Director General, Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency, Dr Debo Akande, there is also the issue of whether the silos in Nigeria responds to the varied kind of food crops being produced in Nigeria. He noted that the silos in the country were basically for grains, arguing that the predominant kind of food consumed in the Southern part of Nigeria are root tuber crops. As against focus on silos, Akande said communities should develop Aggregation centres where farmers can take their crops for keeps before they are moved out, to reduce post-harvest losses. He noted that there was huge post-harvest loss because of bad roads from farm to market as well as lack of storage places.
Akande said, “When the idea of having silo was conceived some years ago, what was not put into perspective was the value chain for the silo. One thing to put into perspective is there are kinds of food you can’t store in silo. While grains are easily stored in silos, you can’t store directly yam, cassava and other root tuber crops which are the predominant kind of food that we consume in the Southern part of Nigeria. That does not mean we don’t need a silo, but our own focus should have been on how we process our own root and tuber and we can store the processed product.
“We should start developing a Community Aggregation Centre. If you don’t have enough you are producing or if what you are producing on the farm is not well aggregated, there is no road to move all those products from the farm to particular aggregation centres then to silo, you wouldn’t have much to put into silo. So, silo is not a standalone mechanism in agriculture, it’s part of the encompassing system that needs to be adopted. It means communities will be able to aggregate, keep it in their community for as long as they want, and then it is easier for them to move there, that will reduce the level of post-harvest loss.”
Noting that silos was crucial to prevent post-harvest losses, a retired Professor of Crop Physiology and Nutrition, Olabode Lucas said corruption and poor maintenance was an issue plaguing every project, sector of the nation’s economy.
“Silos are meant to store grains until when they are needed. You store when there is excess. The unfortunate thing is we don’t maintain. Silos work well in Canada, Australia, the United States but several are poorly maintained in Nigeria. Silos are necessary because post harvest losses are between 15 and 20 percent. There are cribs in the North which are better maintained than the structures of silos. When there was money, silos were established across Nigeria but we don’t maintain things here. We allow them to degenerate. There are native ways of preserving sorghum, maize in the North. They have rhombus, cribs. All the government structures are not efficiently functioning. The challenge is corruption is also a bane of effective functioning of silos,” Lucas said.
A Retired Permanent Secretary of Agriculture, Mr Atilola Victor held that somersaulting agric policies affects both agriculture production and efficient management of storage facilities. Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Oyo State chapter, Mr Adewunmi Abass said the interest of the government in power at any point in time, was crucial to the effective functioning of silos and the agricultural sector, at large.
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