Agriculture

Foods Adaptability In Modern Society

Published

11 years ago

April 12, 2013

The primary basic need of man is food. It is difficult to remember when man started thinking of how to produce food for himself. He is busy in the modern era thinking of how to adapt old forms into new ones for his convenience in a world where time, space and comfort are important in several ways. The old consciousness of food ways is still relevant in time and space for food that is not convenient to carry to far distances. This has given rise to foods that are packaged and sold in stores which are convenient to carry for far distances without making one’s clothes or bags messy.

The first traditional way of processing cassava is harvesting tubers of yam when they are mature. They are peeled, washed and grounded in machine or the equivalent of zinc cut into a square form, punctured at equal intervals – small tiny holes looking like spiked shoes. The meshed form of the cassava is put into a bag and tied, placed on a long branch of any tree prepared for the purpose, another one is placed across it and tied. Another one is placed beneath and another one placed above it and tied. The bag of cassava is retied for three days until it is dry. The powder form is put into a sieve; the chaff is separated from the substance and fried in a big pot. How our forbears got the idea of gari preparation is not known. The consciousness is with us; we believe that if we miss the steps gari made will not be good for consumption and we might take ill.

Fufu is prepared differently. Tubers of cassava are uprooted, cut into slices washed thoroughly and taken either to a waterside and kept in a hole pending when they shall be soft; the outer layer covering each slice is removed, a sieve is placed over a bag. Flour percolates beneath the bag while the waste forms sediments in the sieve. The other method is the modern type of the former; the outer layer of the cassava is removed and the slices put into a basin and left for fermentation to take place. The work of sieving is done; fufu is made through this process. The texture of this form is softer than gari .

Few tubers of cassava are uprooted, peeled and sliced into tiny slices; they are boiled and soaked in water for a while. They are eaten with fresh fish, coconut or groundnuts.

Gari is exported in its dry form. It is refined and packaged as flour for those in countries where gari is not produced. This is the modern consciousness borne out of the necessity to reach indigenes of tropical countries where cassava is planted and processed and those who wish to consume it beyond their countries.

Yam is another staple food in most African countries. It is boiled and eaten with stew or a local sauce of pepper and salt. It could be pounded and eaten with fresh fish pepper soup or any other soup. It is roasted and eaten with pea or fish. These are the major ways yam is eaten.

Modern consciousness has demanded the need for packaging the food in a convenient form for travellers and metropolitan dwellers to buy. This has produced yam flour manufactured for easy consumption. This type is sold within Nigeria, African countries, Europe, America and other countries and continents in the world.

Corn is one of the popular meals of Africans eaten in different ways. It may be roasted and eaten with pea or fish. It could also be eaten with coconut. Corn has been produced in modern forms suitable for rural and urban dwellers. One finds pub-corn and cornflakes as foods in stores. These have been manufactured from the modern consciousness of man who is pitted against time, space and many schedules. These are not only convenient for non-farmers but farmers who could use them out of season. This last point is responsible for the continuous search for the production of foods for preservation out of season.

Plantain is the last example chosen for the demonstration of the urgent need for brains to be at work for the use of different foodstuffs for the production of foods out-of-season. Its essence is to prevent food scarcity and make foods available in stores all round the year. Plantain is boiled and eaten with stew or palm oil. It could be boiled, pounded and eaten with fresh fish pepper soup or any other soups.

Plantain flour is found in major stores in most cities of Nigeria and other countries. This is the modern form which is easy to ship and export to various countries in the world. Local factories produce plantain chips which could last for about a week. They have tried but the need arises to think of how to make this type last for a longer duration of time.

Banana is of the family of plantain. There is now banana custard. This is a modern innovation which has brought about the production of egg and banana custard. This is the outcome of modern consciousness to satisfy people who could carry the product to any destinations.

In conclusion foodstuffs could be adapted to suit the contemporary period. There are food companies, researchers and scholars who are constantly thinking of different ways of preserving food, processing foodstuffs into foods for consumption. The modern society is different from the old one which had much time; also most persons were farmers. Specialization has taken place. This has helped tremendously to improve knowledge for the development of humanity. The bulk of work lies with agricultural scholars, government, private sponsors and companies; these could work together to produce food for preservation all round the year as well as foods for consumption all round the year.

Concerning fruits, there are orange, banana, rasin, mango, grape, pineapple, guava, apricot, lemon, tangerine, apple, berry and lime fruits. These are eaten in their natural forms seasonally. Scholars, researchers and manufacturers have thought to preserve these around the year. This consciousness has led to the opening of many industries for the manufacture of various juices.

The reasons for this consciousness are materialism and convenience. People are interested in making money from the fruits available if they could convert them into drinks. They are also aware that people travel often and will be willing to carry drinks along or buy the ones neatly put into plastic bottles to their offices and any other places.

The industries have also thought of using materials that could be disposable. The containers could decay easily without been the problem of the waste industry. This has helped tremendously in keeping the environment clean.

Indeed there are several brands that may not be listed here. Many states have produced drinks which are peculiar to them as well as nations. The focus of this paper is Nigeria and the juice industries. There has been great improvement from the 1970s until the present; most of the drinks that were manufactured and sold in stores and supermarkets in the country were imported. Now indigenous companies have started manufacturing drinks from the fruits available in the country which are spread geographically.

There are single fruit drinks. Few of these are orange, lemon, mango and pineapple juices. The natural process for some of these is to peel the outer skin of each and squeeze the juice into a glass cup to prove the possibility of producing drinks from the fruits. It is known that stopping at that without preservatives will not proffer solution to the problem of preservation. The duration of any juice depends on the quality and durability of the preservatives which must be tested to meet up the standard of NAFDAC in Nigeria.

Capri-some drink has an orange brand which satisfies anyone who wants only that flavour. It tastes like orange which is not preserved with artificial ingredients, sweetness nor preservatives. The ingredients are water, sugar, orange, juice concentrate, citric acid and vitamin C. Chi company produces it in Lagos.

There are fruit drinks which are a combination of other fruits. Don Simon is a mixed fruit drink made up of orange, banana, raisin, pomme, kwi, fraise et citron, sucre, acidifiant: acide critique et vitamin C. The flavour of this is different from any single juice. This particular one is rich and perhaps good for diabetic patients since it does not contain sugar.

Mixed Fruit Dansa is as it is named. The contents are grape, orange, pineapple, mango, passion fruit, guava, apricot, banana, limes, sucrose, citric acid, vitamin C and water. The nutritional contents are energy, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre and sodium. The company is an indigenous one; it is based in Abule Oshun, Lagos in Nigeria. The Dangote Company is responsible for the production of it.

Chi Exotic is made up of exotic pineapple and coconut nectar. These fruits are produced in many parts of Nigeria especially the East. The food contents are energy, carbohydrate, protein and energy. This product is manufactured at Chivita avenue in Lagos.

5Alive is the brand name for another type of juice. The contents are water, sugar, pineapple, orange, lemon, grape fruit, tangerine, lime, pineapple flavour, carmel, citric acid and vitamin C, energy, carbohydrate, protein, fat, sodium, vitamins A, C and E. It is a rich fruit drink which is nice but may not be good for anyone whose doctor does not recommend it. It is the product of Coca Company.

Chivita premium is different from Chi juice drink. The contents are orange concentrate, mango, natural flavour and water. This drink is sweet and nice to drink; it may be good for many persons since it preserves the natural flavour of each juice though when mixed it gives a taste that is neither orange nor mango but a mixture of both.

The consciousness of producing such juices has arisen out of modernity, coping with the exigencies of now-ness : accessibility, convenience, comfort and changes in culture and taste. The juices are economic products of brains at work to carter for the needs of people; the constant worry is pirates of the products who are most likely to produce products which are sub-standard. The substandard ones and those which use sub-standard preservatives are treats to human existence. People must avoid the ones which have expired; there are times to discard them; they can not last forever but the companies have tried to make us have juices round the year.

Ngaage is of the Niger Delta University.

Barine Saana Ngaage

Agriculture

Nigeria’s Agric Exports Face Rejections Overseas

Published

1 month ago

March 15, 2024

The Tide

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) says Nigeria has lost its leading position in the agriculture export markets because its agricultural commodities do not meet the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements of the foreign markets.
According to WTO, despite the abundance of arable lands and increased investments, the nation has transitioned into a net importer of farm produce that was previously cultivated domestically, undermining efforts aimed at ensuring food sustainability.
The Director-General, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed this in Abuja at the launch of seven trade support programmes initiated by the WTO-ITC to boost the development of Nigeria’s trade and industry standards.
The initiatives, namely the Standards Trade Development Facility, Digital Trade Initiative support, Women Exporters Entrepreneurship support, National Trade Portal and cotton development initiative, aim to provide technical support to strengthen food safety, animal and plant health capacity in developing countries, address challenges of e-commerce digital trade divide and establish a world-class technology centre for all trade-related data and information in Nigeria.
“We are launching today with STDF, ITC, and the NEPC, a project to help with international safety and quality certification for sesame and cowpeas or black-eyed peas.
“The agriculture sector in Nigeria has the potential to be a major driver of export diversification and job creation, but too much of this potential remains unrealized, due to a variety of barriers.
“In fact, Nigeria has not only lost out in agricultural export markets, it is a net food importer spending about billions a year on goods, many of which we can also produce here.
“Some of Nigeria’s unrealised potential has to do with trade-related problems on the supply side, and that is what this project is seeking to rectify”, the WTO DG stated.
Specifically, she said Nigerian cowpea and sesame exports were increasingly facing rejections in several destination markets due to non-compliance with international SPS requirements.
According to her, the failure to comply with regional, global and import country sanitary and phytosanitary standards has resulted in loss of sales, revenue, and hard currency due to export rejects.
Last week, the former Finance Minister charged Nigeria and other African countries to improve the quality of their shea exports to international standards.
She added, “Nigeria is the world’s largest producer and consumer of cowpeas. Sesame is primarily an export crop, and Nigeria is the world’s fourth leading producer, exporting to the EU, Türkiye, Japan, South Korea and other Asian markets.
“However, Nigerian cowpea and sesame exports have increasingly faced rejections in several destination markets due to non-compliance with international SPS requirements”.
She said for example, “Nigeria accounts for over a third of Japan’s sesame imports, but health and safety inspections during the past few years have found instances where pesticide residue levels were nearly double the maximum residue limits permissible from 2019 to 2021″.
Hence to tackle the challenges, Okonjo-Iweala said the WTO was partnering with relevant stakeholders to build the capacities of stakeholders across the sesame and cowpeas value chains to better understand market access requirements and improved agricultural practices such as pesticide application, hygiene techniques, harvest and post-harvest methods, and food safety.
She said the project, which would be implemented with $1.2mn funding, would improve the country’s non-oil export.
On her part, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Aniete, said the Ministry was putting in place policies and mechanisms that would facilitate and enhance trade, while also removing all the bottlenecks hampering trade and investment.
She further stated that the Ministry had started rolling out the N50bn Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme through the Bank of Industry, targeting various economic players.
She added that a N150bn intervention through the FGN MSME and Manufacturing Sector Fund, providing low-interest loans that are pivotal for scaling businesses and spurring job creation would commence very soon.
“We are achieving this by facilitating a strong enabling environment for businesses to thrive, developing robust policies and reforms, increasing access to financing, widening access to global markets, driving investments, and creating job opportunities, all in line with the vision of Mr President.
“In 2024 we are focused on improving infrastructural capacity such as power and transport, as well as soft infrastructure such as transparent regulation, policy consistency, the rule of law, and a culture of efficient collaboration and synergy among various government agencies and offices.
“We believe this will facilitate an environment where business operations are not hindered by red tape but can continue to thrive”.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Nonye Ayeni, explained that the project, expected to last for three years, would enhance the quality and standard of sesame and cowpea through the institution of good Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary conducts.
She disclosed that in 2022, the worldwide value of sesame exports and its value chain amounted to $7.35bn, projected to surge to $9.27bn by 2032. Similarly cowpeas were valued at $7.2bn in 2023, with an anticipated rise to $9.43bn by 2028.
“This project, STDF 845, will therefore enhance the quality and standard of sesame and cowpea through the institution of good Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary conducts, Good Agricultural and Warehousing practices, packaging/labelling and excellent storage systems.
“All these are expected to forestall frequent contract cancellations and loss of business opportunities while allowing a significant increase in global acceptance of the items and for better quality of these products consumed locally.
“This project is designed to last for three years to enhance the integrity of the cowpea and Sesame value chain from Nigeria.
“Therefore, the focus lies on improved practices that will enable Nigerian stakeholders to comply with Maximum Residue Levels of selected pesticides used in Cowpeas and Sesame and Microbiological contamination with Salmonella (Sesame).
“Overall, it will improve the regulatory and control system as well as farming and processing practices applied for Cowpea and Sesame”, she concluded.

Agriculture

WOFAN Provides Health Care Services For Rural Women Farmers

Published

1 month ago

March 15, 2024

The Tide

The Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN-ICON2), with support from MasterCard Foundation, and in partnership with Benson Colman and Associate Limited, has provided a “Lab-ulance” to support the healthcare system of a farming community in Gwarimpa Village, Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
This is part of its activities to mark this year’s International Women’s Day celebration.
The Lab-ulance is a tricycle fully kitted with medical equipment such as laboratory equipment, midwifery equipment, refrigerator powered by a solar system and other basic health equipment.
Executive Director of WOFAN, Hajia Salamatu Garba, while interacting with journalists at the unveiling of the programme, said the initiative was borne out of the concerns that farmers too need to be healthy before they can farm.
“It is the same thing that we are talking about and it is where holistic development is missing in Nigeria, because someone is farming doesn’t mean that after giving him fertiliser and seed, then you go and fold your arms, no.
“Farmers need to remain healthy before they can produce food for us sustainably. And if you look at the farming communities, they lack access to roads, healthcare facilities and so on. They can’t at first hand get services for their families.
“This was what brought the issue of Lab-ulance. These are youth that are working with WOFAN that decided to go innovative and come up with a very simple and affordable transport system that can also carry a doctor.
“In this Lab-ulance, we have the midwifery, we have the laboratory equipment, we have every equipment you need, including a refrigerator that is powered by solar system. This is the kind of development that we need in Nigeria”, Hajia Garba said.
She said it is ideal for every ward in Nigeria to have this system linked to primary healthcare and doctors would not be seen running away from duties because they have necessary facilities.
According to her, the women are required to pay only N2,500 as health insurance which will cover their husband and two children.