Zerofly...Insecticide Incorporated Polypropylene Storage Bag

ZeroFly Hermetic Storage Bag is the first insecticide-incorporated storage bag to prevent damaging pest infestations. It reduces the loss of seed or grains that can be consumed, stored, or sold for optimized prices. The storage bag works by establishing a long lasting insecticidal around the bagged commodities. When pest come in contact with the bag in an attempt to reach the stored commodities, they get a lethal dose of the insecticide and are killed.

Cowlar….Smart Neck Collars for Dairy Cows

Dairy cows are often vulnerable to health problems which in turn lower their milk yield, reduce milk quality and affects the stability of the reproductive systems.  Cowlar is a cow monitoring system that facilitates an increase in milk yield while improving the herd's health and ultimately maximizing profitability. Cowlar assists with tracking the cow's core temperature, real-time activity and behavior of each individual cow, allowing farmers to detect when the animal is in heat and determine the best time for insemination.

Cowlar offers what has been called a 'FitBit for cows' which allows farmers to track their cows in new and innovative ways.

Cowlar units are non-invasive collars with attached smart sensors. Each collar retains a charge for six months, and is completely waterproof.

CropX…Grow more, Water less

In drought, saving water in any way possible is crucial. Farmers have to find a way to toe the line between saving water and keeping their crops alive. And since so much of the farming process has become automated, it’s likely that each part of a farmer’s field will get the same amount of water, whether that amount of water is actually necessary or not.

CropX is a new agriculture technology company that is looking to solve that problem. The company sells smart sensors, which can tell farmers which parts of their fields actually need water at any given time.

SUREHATCH…..Unique Incubation Technology for Africa

It is common knowledge that the supply of day old chicks is very limited and unreliable. African poultry industry is characterized by few hatcheries and abundant small holder poultry farmers. These farmers demand day-old-chicks from the limited hatcheries thereby making demand for day old chicks to surpass supply. SUREHATCH has now made it possible for farmers to produce their own reliable supply of chickens both for personal consumption and for resale.

SUREHATCH, a South African company, manufactures egg incubators including small-scale models specifically for smallholder use. The incubators are turn-key solution and enable a poultry farmer to hatch and grow his own chickens without having to rely on suppliers of day-old chicks. Using the incubator can increase hatch rates tenfold over traditional practices.

Flowhive...Revolutionary Honey Extraction System

Beekeeping or apiculture is the breeding of honeybees and maintenance of beehives for their honey and other products that the hive produces. Honey has several health benefits which include preventing cancer and heart disease, reducing ulcer and other gastrointestinal disorders, blood sugar regulation, strengthening the immune system etc., but despite these benefits, honey collection from beehives remains a daunting exercise as it involves tedious processes like suiting up, smoking the bees, cracking the hive open, lifting out the frames, sweeping off the bees, transporting the frames to honey shed etc., and these comes with high safety hazards such as stings from bees, burns from smoking etc.

Preventing Crop Loss through Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) Bags

The Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bag provides low-cost, hermetic grain-storage bags that prevent pest damage during crop storage without having to use chemicals. These bags allow farmers to consume or sell crops later in the season when prices might be higher, increasing food security and offering a healthier alternative to chemical pesticide.  When using PICS bags, farmers no longer need chemicals to control grain storage pests. PICS bag was developed by Purdue University and supported by USAID and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

PICS bags was formerly Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage bags (PICS 1) which was originally meant to provide a simple, low-cost method of reducing post-harvest cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) losses due to bruchid infestations in West and Central Africa.  

Irrigating Africa with Sunflower Solar Irrigation

In sub-Saharan Africa, access to irrigation is a major limit in agriculture. Only 7% of the total cultivated area of 183 million hectares in Africa is irrigated compared to 41% in Asia. This is by far the lowest proportion of irrigation anywhere in the world.

There are about 500 million one-acre farmers around the world and about half of them are in Africa. Crop production in Africa is rain-fed and since rainfall has become very unpredictable due to climate change, farm productivity is on decline as small scale farmers cannot afford the labour intensive manual irrigation or the expensive fuel powered irrigation pumps.

Trimble GreenSeeker Handheld Crop Sensor

The Trimble GreenSeeker handheld crop sensor is a simple farm management tool that can be used to assess the heath or vigour of a crop in order to make better nutrient management decisions on your farm. The GreenSeeker crop sensing system helps farmers to effectively and precisely manage crop inputs on the go by applying the right amount of fertilizer, in the right place, at the right time.

The GreenSeeker instantly take readings of crop’s health. Readings can be used to make non-subjective decisions regarding the amount of fertilizer to be applied to your crop, resulting in more efficient use of fertilizer—a benefit to the farmer and the environment.

Minimizing the effect of Tuta absoluta in Nigeria through Tray and Lamp Technology

Tuta absoluta is a larva of moth known by the common names tomato leaf-miner and South American tomato moth. The pest (Tuta absoluta) was discovered in South America in 1912 where it ravaged many farms before it spread to Europe and then to Asia and now to East and West Africa.

The larva feeds voraciously upon tomato plants, producing large galleries in leaves, burrowing in stalks, and consuming apical buds and green and ripe fruits. It is capable of causing a yield loss of 100%.

It has the ability to destroy a whole tomato farm within 48 hours. It is also very difficult to control as it has a high mutation capacity with the ability to develop a resistance to insecticides.

Legislation of Agricultural Development Plan; A panacea to agricultural stagnation and policies somersault in Nigeria

Agriculture is the largest employer of labour in Nigeria employing about 30 percent of the population on full time basis and about 50 percent on part time basis. Before the discovery of oil, Nigeria used to be a major player in the global agricultural market as the country was the world’s largest producer and exporter of groundnuts and palm oil in the 1960s.

Nigeria has comparative advantage in agriculture, with 35 percent arable land, abundant fertile soils, a population of about 200 million people, ample and reliable rainfall, uncountable agrarian communities,   moderate sunshine etc.  Despite these comparative advantages, the huge potentials of the sector is yet to be tapped and as such,  agriculture remains largely underdeveloped making small holder farming form large percentage of the sector.

Loss of Agro-biodiversity – A serious threat to Food and Nutrition Security in Africa.

Agro-biodiversity or agricultural biodiversity is a subset of biodiversity that encompasses all of the genetic resources (plant genetic resources, animal genetic resources, microbes and pollinators genetic resources) related to food and agriculture. Agro-biodiversity includes all the varieties of crops, livestock breeds, fish species, soil microbes and pollinators (bees, insects, etc.) including all of their wild relatives that support agricultural ecosystems and productivity.

Africa, which is home to more than 50 000 known plant species, 1 000 mammal species and 1 500 bird species, is increasingly experiencing major losses of its large and diverse heritage of flora and fauna to genetic erosion.

Aligning to the realities of Climate Change through Climate Smart Agriculture

Climate refers to the weather conditions prevailing in an area measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables over long periods of time.

Climate change by definition is therefore a large scale and long term shift in the statistical distribution of these weather patterns. Of all the long term changes in weather pattern, increase in temperature has attracted a global attention.

The earth contain greenhouse gases namely Water-vapour (H2O) Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Ozone (O3) and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

When sunlight reaches the surface of the earth, some of it is absorbed by the greenhouse gases and are then redirected back towards the earth to warm it. This process is called greenhouse effect. Without the greenhouse effect, the earth would be would a very cold place much than it is now and life would be difficult.

Dwarf Carica papaya…the real farmers delight

Dwarf Carica papayas are hybrid pawpaw fruits-bearing plants that grow to height less than 10 feet. Some varieties are between 5-7 feet. There are different varieties of dwarf carica papaya which include Red Royale, Lunar, Sinta, Vega, Chara, Mikaili, Mimosa, Maradona, Waimanalo, Red lady etc.

Thailand dwarf hybrid pawpaw generally called Red Royale is now being marketed in Nigeria by East-west Seeds Company, An Asian Company that has through intensive breeding programs become a market leader by selling premium quality hybrid and open pollinated seeds for all major tropical vegetable crops in Africa. The company does not sell Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

Greenhouse Technology in Nigeria

Greenhouse technology is the unique technique of providing favourable conditions to the plants. This technology has just one purpose, which is to provide and maintain a growing environment that will result in optimum crop production at maximum yield. 

This method apart from creating a favourable growing environment for crops also protect the plants from adverse climatic condition (such as cold, wind, precipitation, excessive radiation, extreme temperature, etc.) and from insects and disease. Greenhouses range from simple low cost wooden structures to galvanized and computerized greenhouses. 

Smart Farming…….Data Driven Farming with ZENVUS

Farm data collection and analysis has been helping farmers in developed countries to manage their farm operations better. The more information they have, the more they can make decisions tailored to their farm’s specific needs. The information obtained can help farmers identify efficiencies that lead to higher productivity and profitability, lower input costs, and optimized fertilizer use.

To help farmers in Nigeria with data collection and analysis, a Nigerian company, First Atlantic Semiconductors & Microelectronics has introduced 3 products, ZENVUS Smartfarm and ZENVUS Yield and ZENVUS web app. While the ZENVUS Smartfarm can help farmers eliminate guesswork in farming by knowing when, how and what to plant. The ZENVUS Yield enables farmers to be ahead of outbreaks of diseases, pests etc thereby making farming a real business.

Reducing Post harvest Losses of Agricultural Produce through Modern Controlled Atmosphere by Kehinde S.Jimoh

The Problem

Colossal post-harvest losses of fresh farm produce remain a daunting challenge to farmers in Nigeria due to inadequate storage and processing facilities. Every cropping season, farmers in Nigeria labour to produce various food items in large quantities but majority of these food items are lost due to inadequate storage and processing facilities and this also result in huge fortune losses to the farmers. 

Wastage of agricultural produce at farm gate and losses in the market places especially fruit and vegetables is a recurring challenge Nigerian peasant and mechanised farmers have been battling with. In fact, Nigeria loses about 40-60 per cent of farm produce annually to lack of storage and agro-processing facilities.