Mamadou Biteye is the managing director of the Africa regional office, Rockefeller Foundation. In this interview with JOSEPHINE OKOJIE, Biteye talks about the YieldWise Programme and its impact in tackling Nigeria’s post-harvest loss in tomato production.
Can you tell us about the YieldWise programme in Nigeria and its mode of operation?
The YieldWise initiative was launched in 2016. It is a $130 million seven years program aimed at reducing food loss and wastage by half by 2030 across three value chains: tomato in Nigeria, mango in Kenya and maize in Tanzania. YieldWise initiative focuses on five opportunities for transformation in the targeted value chains which includes the following: helping smallholder farmers increase the quality of their produce and aggregate surplus, facilitate structuring of commodity markets by fixing broken links in the different segments of a given commodity, enable linkages between aggregated smallholder farmers and markets so as to de-risk a value chain and unlock access to technologies, solutions and practices to curb preventable, engaging global businesses to account for food wastages in their supply chains, beyond their own factories and farms, and encouraging government policy reform to drive mutual economic growth, exports, and access technologies and solutions to curb preventable crop loss.
To kick off, our focus has been on four value chains, representative of three main food groups: fruits and vegetables, cereals and grains and roots and tubers. In Nigeria, we are working with 5,000 tomato farmers in Kano State. Our main strategy has been to orchestrate the structuring of the tomato value chain in Kano by investing in the five areas listed above.
Nigeria is the second largest tomato producing country in Africa with a production of 1.5 million metric tons per annum with an estimated demand of 2.5 million metric tons. Unfortunately, 50 percent of the harvested tomatoes go bad after harvest. This is mainly because of the poor storage and handling practices in the country. Pyxera Global is the implementing partner in Nigeria, running the Initiative’s operations in Kano State. Other critical partners include the Kano State Government, the Kano Farmers’ Cooperative, Dangote Group, GAIN, and IGD.
What progress has the YieldWise Initiative made in tackling Nigeria’s post-harvest losses?
So far, a total of 6,000 smallholder tomato producers have been aggregated, trained and connected to the Dangote processing factory and fresh tomato markets in Lagos and Port Harcourt. The Dangote processing facility was able to process the first batch of tomatoes since opening plant 3 years ago. More than 15 alternative market channels for fresh tomato have been identified.
PYXERA has been able to introduce plastic crates that reduce post-harvest loss as they protect the produce from bruising and excessive weight pressure which reduce PHL by 78 percent amongst the small sample of farmers piloted. An increase in players from the private, public and non-profit actors to 23 – they all have an ultimate goal of cutting post-harvest loss of the tomato value chain by half. Twelve aggregation centers were established for collective sorting, grading, and selling and 12 extension agents have been trained. Linking farmers to financing –support the registration of over 4,000 farmers with bank verification numbers to pre-qualify for the primary requirement to access loans under the Anchor Borrower Scheme which is an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
How has the Initiative helped farmers deal with the issues of glut and post-harvest losses in the Nigeria’s tomato value chain?
Nigeria experiences very high post-harvest losses due to high production volumes, improper produce handling, lack of structured markets for fresh produce, and limited processing capacity. At the peak of the harvesting period, the fresh market is flooded with the produce.
YieldWise is contributing to reducing these losses. The Initiative investments are geared towards structuring the tomato value chain. An ecosystem of buyers that include the Dangote processing facility and the more than 15 market channels for fresh produce has been established and is growing.
Tomato producers are being aggregated into Farmer-based Organizations (FBOs) and linked to both aggregation centres and market channels. At aggregation centres, produce is sorted, graded and properly packed in plastic crates to avoid damage and loss. Furthermore, good progress has been made in increasing smallholder farmer access to finance so that they can invest in improved technologies, better handling, and storage.
A key component of the Initiative is to increase the quality of the produce by strengthening the capacity of smallholder farmers to produce a quality product for the market. Pyxera is providing extension and advisory services to these producers and FBOs.
In addition, we introduced cold storage through a partnership with Cold Hubs Limited. Through this partnership, a walk-in cold storage facility and crate leasing service have been established in Kano to benefit participating tomato producers. The storage unit will enable farmers/traders to store their produce at a fee – enabling them to extend the shelf life of their produce. We are also working with Lange and Grant-another cold storage and tomato off-take company—to facilitate the expansion of their operations into a greater project area.
Is the YieldWise Initiative partnering with any research institute in Nigeria to develop technologies that will address the country’s post-harvest losses?
Yes! The YieldWise Initiative is working closely with raffia basket makers and the Savanna Institute of Design to develop prototypes on storage made from locally available materials that would enable appropriate packing and transport of tomatoes from the field to the markets. There is also the Nigeria Storage Product Research Institute (NSPRI), a government agency that is mandated to conduct research on packaging. The institute is the designer and custodian of a diverse set of post-harvest technologies and solutions such as tomato driers, solar tents, evaporation coolers, collapsible crates, bottled tomato preservation among others.
How many farmers have been equipped against post-harvest losses through the YieldWise initiative?
Last year nearly 70,000 smallholder farmers were trained in how to reduce post-harvest loss. This total includes tomato farmers in Nigeria, mango farmers in Kenya and maize farmers in Tanzania. In the mango value chain in Kenya, 90 percent of the farmers trained were using loss-reducing technologies, and we saw small-to-medium enterprises spring up and facilitate greater distribution of these technologies.
In Nigeria, the impact is as follows: a total of 10,000 producers were mobilized, with nearly 4,500 farmers aggregated and trained by various implementing partners on improved practices, post-harvest loss technologies. Dangote Farms Limited sourced 2,700 metric tons from participating producers. Extension and advisory services were strengthened with 25 extension officers dedicated to the Initiative and working together with 47 Lead Farmers to couch tomato producers on good agronomic practices and post-harvest loss reduction methods and techniques. Over 4,000 farmers have been registered with bank verification numbers to receive loans via Anchor Borrower Scheme to enable them to buy farm equipment to reduce on loses. More than 3,000 plastic crates made available to improve handling of the produce.
By what percentage has the YieldWise Initiative reduced Nigeria’s post-harvest loss?
While the YieldWise initiative in Nigeria is only over a year old, good progress has been made as indicated above. Our target is to reach 20,000 farmers with the integrated package of technologies and services by 2019.
Contribution can be seen through the network of strategic partners we have brought together in the tomato sector in order to tackle losses. From the technology partners to small holder farmers, anchor buyers such as the Dangote Processing Factory.
Furthermore, a lot of investment has been made on awareness creation in post-harvest loss and its effects on the agricultural sector and beyond and we continue to partner with strategic partners to help us prioritize food loss and waste reduction efforts and investments.
How much has been spent so far in Nigeria and what is yet to be spent?
Food loss is a solvable challenge that requires a coordinated effort among key stakeholders. Structuring the tomato value chain to increase efficiency and reduce losses requires us to leverage our investments to orchestrate linkages and facilitate partnerships. Furthermore, our investments have strengthened the capacities of farmers and institutions enabling them to prioritize losses, have access to financing, raise awareness for post-harvest loss solutions and metrics, as well as facilitate improvements in the value chain. However, our investment alone is not enough to tackle the problem, hence the reason we are working with a multiplicity of partner’s in order to achieve the goal.
