Agriculture
COLDHUBS, providers of solar-powered cold rooms, has unveiled its cold room for preserving agricultural products at the Abat CBD market at Elesokan, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ColdHubs, Mr Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, who spoke on the sidelines of the event , said the goal of the company was to reduce post- harvest losses experienced by farmers.
Ikegwuonu said the Cold Hubs are walk-in solar –powered cold stations for 24/7storage and prerservation of vegetables, tomatoes, pepper, meet, fish, etc.
“Our innovation, ColdHubs, is a “plug and play” modular, solar-powered walk-in cold room, for 24/7 off-grid storage and preservation of perishable foods.
“ It adequately addresses the problem of post- harvest losses in fruits, vegetables and other perishable food.
“ColdHubs, is installed in major food production and consumption centers (in markets and farms), farmers place their produce in clean plastic crates, these plastic crates are stacked inside the cold room.
“This extends the freshness of fruits, vegetables and other perishable food from two days to about 21 days.”
The CEO said ColdHubs offered a flexible pay-as-you-store subscription model to farmers.
He explained that, in preparation for storage, farmers would transfer their perishable foods into ‘our reusable crates,’ which fit neatly onto the shelves.
He added that farmers would pay a daily flat fee for each crate of food they stored.
The CEO expressed gratitude to Heifer International, an NGO, for keying into coldhubs vision and partnering with it to establish 10 coldhubs across the country.
Also speaking, the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya expressed gratitude to ColdHubs for bringing the cold room innovation to Ibeju-Lekki
Represented by Mr Emmanuel Audu, Director, Lagos Agricultural Training Institute, Olusanyo said the unveiling of the cold hub was of utmpost importance to the ministry.
She said the state launched the agriculture and food partnership in 2021 to secure partnership for interventions that would boost food security and reduce post harvest loses.
“If you look at the poverty map, you can see that farmers occupy the highest level.
“They toil but do not derive much economic benefit because of post- harvest loses and lack of storage facilities.
“I am particularly glad that this facility will address economic loss,” Olusola said.
The commissioner said the state was thinking of establishing cold hubs in fishing communities and appealed to Heifer and Coldhubs to partner with the state government in that regard.
Also Speaking, Country Director of Heifer International, Mr Rufus Idris said the aim of the NGO was to end hunger and poverty.
He said there was no way one could address hunger and poverty without intervening in the agricultural space.
According to him, food security and the prevention of post-harvest losses have helped in improving the agricultural value chain, thus creating more jobs.
He called on the users of the cold room and the market association to do everything in their power to protect the facility.(NAN)
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