I don't think I've ever seen a big silo like the type in this picture in Nigeria. I think part of the problem we have in agriculture is post-harvest preservation. Nigeria loses more than 50% of harvested tomato annually. At least the crazy hike in prices of tomato some time earlier this year may have preservation and of course pest damage to blame for that.
Earlier this year? that was 2016 bro! When Tuta absoluta devoured almost all the cultivated tomatoes in the Northern part of the country. That was a pre-harvest attack though.
Time flies when you are having fun :)
This is disheartening!
I don't think we have a silo capacity as big as the first picture but I've seen one like that on the right in Akure, Ondo State. There are about 33 silos in Nigeria and the largest capacity we can boast of is about 100,000 metric tonnes. Fortunately or unfortunately, they've been placed on concession by the Federal Government of recent. Postharvest loss is a big problem to food access and also on an alarming increase in Nigeria. Postharvest losses can be attributed to the lack of appropriate technologies for processing, packaging, and storage; low rate of technology adoption; low research focus on perishable agricultural produce; poor linkages between research and food industries among others. Currently, more than 30% of the food produced for human consumption across Africa is lost. Tomatoes is one of the perishable horticultural crops that we produce and comsume everyday but little is done to add meaningful value or ensure proper storage of the crop. When crops are off season, the prices gets crazy. Reason government should support agricultural reserves, partner with farmers, encourage them in farming by having percentage they'll buy from farmers after harvest so they can store for the rainy days. This encourages farmers to do more since they have assurance of price stability during bountiful harvest and solve problems of marketing. Also there won't be price shock when crops are off season since the government will have them in reserve and sell at subsidised prices. Thank you @greenrun for your comment
Thanks for the detailed reply. The post harvest loss is particularly wasteful and a big loss to farmers. Placed on concession? What does that mean?
Basically, they want to auction/sell it out to individuals/investors since they can't manage it well
Oh, it turns out that government management here is now synonymous with failure.