BOSCH partners UNIDO to help farmers improve market profitability
In a bid to address the issue of food losses due to poor storage system, Bosch, a global supplier of technology and services, has partnered with the United Nations Industrial development Organisation (UNIDO) to discuss ways of improving farmers’ market profitability especially in cassava.
In many developing countries, food losses are greatly attributed to poor transportation and lack of storage facilities. This is a huge problem in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where a third of all foods produced are lost before they reach the market place.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA), 30 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds are lost every year in SSA and 85 percent of that is lost in the production, harvesting, handling and processing stages of the supply chain.
“It is imperative for farmers to take advantage of the technological tools and services, that could help them proffer solutions to their food losses and perk up their profit,” Ghislain Noumbessy, managing director, Robert Bosch West Africa.
Noumbessy stated that Bosch has been motivated by the search for ever-better technological solutions and fresh approaches that will help tackle the great challenges of today and deliver benefits to her customers.
“At Bosch, our work is guided and motivated to find solutions to even the most complex technological challenges while at the same time preserving natural resources and making a positive contribution to the society and that is why we decided to create a stakeholders consultative meeting to discuss the market prospects, challenges and opportunities of agriculture especially in cassava farming”, he said.
Yvonne Lokko, a representative of UNIDO from Austria, stated that the organisation is working with Bosch in line with the United Nations agenda to reduce poverty, facilitate trade capacity building, agri-business and agro-industry development in Nigeria.
Speaking on the role of Bank of Industry (BOI) in agribusiness development in Nigeria, Rasheed Olaoluwa, managing director, who was represented by Kadafa Lolo Ruth, group head, agro processing unit, BOI, stated that agriculture is one of the cardinal agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the bank will continue to give adequate necessary supports and loans to farmers to grow their business.
Olaoluwa said that farming is a serious business and cassava is a profitable trade but there is a significant need for many farmers to improve on their skills and management structures to enable them improve their farming in 21st century.
According to him, BOI has noticed that lots of farmers are individualistic and seldom come together as a team to have a registered corporative or association which could enable them to access loans from financial institutions.
“Many farmers come to the Bank of Industry to seek loans but they do not have any trackable sales record or evidence of market sales; they cannot present convincing workable proposals or a clear thought-out business frame work that could enable them secure loans”, he said.
Josephine Okojie