Kano – Nigeria: Many farmers in Nigeria are facing various challenges, starting from the time of cultivation and the time of harvesting what they have planted. Small farmers or farmers who cultivate to get food to eat and sell sometimes are the front lines to have such problems.
One of the problems faced by farmers include storing the produce they have grown for a long time or when they want to take it to the market.
A program launched by the Adam Smith Foundation called the Research And Innovation System for Africa (RISA), and some partners like CONESAM, Technological Incubation Center Kano, ABU Zaria and others have trained young people and women and Farmers techniques and the importance of managing crops that are harvested to take a long time without spoiling, or ways to manage them for sale.
While talking to CITAD Radio, the program officer in charge of the program in Kano region, Ummi Shehu said
“Many of us have noticed how there is a shortage of food, or how the food is not managed properly in Nigeria. So this shortage or the way the food is not handled properly or even before the food has a problem is the purpose of implementing this program”
One of the things that aggravate the problem or lack of food in Nigeria, there is the problem between the farmer and the one who buys his produce, which gives way to aggravating the situation.
Shehu while explaining about this issue said
“That is why this program brings together farmers, food processors and those who assemble food processing machines and the agencies that manage food processing in Nigeria such as NAFDAC, ICAN and SON, to ensure that there is a good relationship  in seeing that the quality of food supply in Nigeria is managed and improved”.
During the launch ceremony of the training in the Technological incubation center in Kano, the British Ambassador to Nigeria Dr. Richard Montgomery visited the meeting and blessed the things that were show case there.
The officers of the RISA program and the representatives of partner organizations toured the ambassador at the fairs and showed him the things that are produced and the machines that have been manufactured.
Montgomery expressed his satisfaction with such things he saw and praised the institutions and organizations that meet to see such a plan come true.
He also revealed some suggestions and some ways that he thinks things will improve
“I think there should be a lot of attention to this kind of strategy through the management of products like this in order to improve the way of preserving the cultivated food”
Montgomery added
“These types of things are very helpful in promoting investment and improving the economic condition of the country, then being brave and improving the condition and providing them with capital will help a lot in making sure that there is a good person”.
He is one of the people involved in this program, the president of CONESAM Shafi’u Abdullahi, explained how they went about improving and training these people in the techniques and methods of how to improve food after it is harvested from the farm.
Also in his speech, the head of the incubation center, expressed his happiness after seeing how their board was chosen and the use of their equipment to make this fair or teach this strategy.