Imo University Don mulls indigenous methods of preservation to curb food insecurity in Nigeria

Imo University Don mulls indigenous methods of preservation to curb food insecurity in Nigeria

Joel Oladele, Abuja

A professor of Public Health and climate change enthusiast, Professor Kenneth Yongabi has stressed the need to embrace traditional methods of food perseveration as a panacea to raging food insecurity in Nigeria and Africa.
Prof Kenneth disclosed this while speaking exclusively with Nigerian NewsDirect on a book titled “A Guide To Accelerate Food Security In Nigeria: An Anthroposophy Manual To Curbing Post Harvest losses of Perishable Foods In Nigeria”
The Imo State University Don while speaking to our correspondent in Abuja at the end of a 3-day First International Conference and Workshop on “Phytobiotechology Applications in Climate Change Mitigation” said food insecurity is not limited to Nigeria but cut across Africa noting that Nigeria is mostly affected due to its large population.
He added that the current scarcity of food is being exacerbated by COVID-19 and climate change which consequently is negatively affecting the mental health of more than 90 percent of Nigerians.
“I think it’s not just a peculiar problem from Nigeria. It’s a major problem that cuts across the 54 Member States of Africa. You know, with climate change staring at us, especially in post COVID-19, food security is declining. Nigeria has been the worst hit because of its population. I mean, we are talking about Nigeria with a population of more than 200 million people.
“Of course, as of last year, the World Bank indicated more than 113 million Nigerians actually are in poverty. So with that, we really foresaw that these trends would really be very palpable, especially considering COVID-19, considering climate change. So we thought that this is a reality.
Speaking on the inspiration behind the book, Prof Kenneth noted that while modern technological ways of food preservation are good, their side effects call for serious concern and that justifies why traditional methods highlighted in the book become imperative.

“Yes, food insecurity is a big issue. Number one, and what we consider in the book is the fact that, as much as we are advocating for modern technology to preserve foods, which again, has its own setbacks in terms of thinking about climate change issues, and thinking about the effect of synthetic chemicals used in food preservation, which really at the moment these are not things that we should really embrace, in preserving foods in the country.
“So we thought that we should go back to revisit traditional ways of how food was preserved, the natural ways in which food was preserved, and see how we can build a science around it. And we actually undertook some bit of scientific studies. Some of these traditional methods of foods that our parents were using, you know, many, many years ago, and to survive on it.
“Why don’t we really go back and study these survival mechanisms of our forefathers, and see how we can, you know, build a science package, and then use it today. And that was very inspirational. That was actually one of the foundational issues that propelled us to be able to undertake this particular work. And as you can see, we call it a guide. But there is a manual, that manual would help us to transfer the skills to the end users.
“And we’re looking at foods like tomatoes, vegetables, and some of the varieties that we have. This is a real problem. And we understand that despite the fact that there is a real problem, behind that real problem, there is a real solution”
He highlighted how indigenous people widely embraced local knowledge to preserve corpses in the precolonial era, saying such is worth revisiting.
“If you go to Kuru, in some parts of Nigeria, in northern Nigeria here, and you revisit the past, you will see that when someone died, they never took them to mortuary, at that time, what they do was to wrap the person with plantain leaves, and put it in the sun, that person could be there until the funerals ceremonies were prepared, and that’s preservation. That is actually the natural embalming.

“So we now borrowed that knowledge of using plantain and using sun to preserve our foods. That is the indigenous knowledge we’re talking about. Now. Have you ever watched a plantain bunch and leaves? How long does it take to decay? It takes quite a while, so what is in it? So we studied those phytonutrients and we studied why a plantain stem takes a long time for it to deteriorate. That’s number one in nature.
“Then number two, the indigenous people, use that as an embalming process to preserve their corpses till burial is due. So we studied that, and we incorporated that knowledge and packaged it as anthroposophy. Anthroposophy is just local indigenous knowledge, coming from a certain culture of a people, we’re dealing with the wisdom of a people.
“What we’re saying is that we did not just come from the sky, we evolved and before colonization were we not existing? Were we not farming? Were we not preserving foods? How do we just cut off from this survival mechanism? And we think that we want to impose, you know, Eurocentric knowledge. No, Eurocentric knowledge is tough on us. Because what do we do? We adopt an exotic model to preserve food, we don’t have constant power supply, we don’t have the chemicals, and all that.
“But why can’t we go back to what our parents were doing using plants, using local materials. And even in some circumstances, our parents were using ash, wood ash, to preserve food after studying the wood ash. So those are the kinds of things that really inspired us to put this book together. And what we’re saying is that science is anthroposophic.
Professor Kenneth explained how anthroposophic science can help Nigerian farmers save money and increase their income through improved crop storage and transportation techniques. He also called for empowerment of farmers with indigenous knowledge and technology to address food security challenges.
“The tomatoes and onions from the North are being transported in vehicles down South. During the transportation process, we lose some vegetables, but what if we bring in these techniques, and these people are no longer losing, because when the crops with the vegetables and fruits are not damaged, they get extra income or their desired income from that process. So if they do that, then the internal economies scale of Nigeria will increase. And that’s what we’re talking about.
“The tomatoes easily deteriorate due to fungal attack, rats and pests and cockroaches are all there. Now, the anthroposophic method that we have captured here, if we give it to them, empower them, then at the end of the day, a tomato that stays for just, two, three days or so and they are unable to sell it, what happened? They discard it.
If we are able to empower them. They have this knowledge, and they use that tomato, that tomato stays for two weeks then they have an extra income. That is what we’re talking about here.
“ So what we’re saying is that we should go back to our roots. I’d like to borrow from this South African reggae musician, Lucky Dube to get back to our roots, and that’s the whole essence of this.
“There are plants that can produce the pesticides and we have been able to develop them. There are plants that can produce the fungus, we’ve identified and we have developed them. We have packaged and put in what we call the biocides from plants or natural under which we can train our farmers,” he said.
On her part, One of the co-authors of the book and a Lecturer from the department of Microbiology, Imo State University, Owerri, Dr Ezenwa Chika noted that a lot of farmers lack technical know-how and financial capacity to use modern technology, thus the need to embrace the local methods which are considered easier and cheaper.

“Going by modern technology, a lot of our local farmers don’t have the facilities to access the technology or even if they have the technology, they don’t have the technical know-how to really go about it. Before you know it, they are losing their harvested foods. This particular idea is for us to go natural. Let’s teach them indigenous ways they can use that won’t cost them much.
“This one is cheap because it is an indigenous method with a very easy and cheap approach. When they learn it, it will help to preserve their foods and that will actually reduce the selling price in the market since little is being spent to preserve the food,” She added
Another co-author, Lecturer and Researcher from Imo State University, Dr. Ngozi Okechukw-Ezike said efforts are in place to ensure that local farmers key into the vision.
“We are having seminar and Workshop currently on Phytobiotechology, and this book launch is part of it, a training will come on how to use this natural means to preserve our food, fortunately, we were able to reach out to certain group from some states and representatives of their Farmers Association are here and from one of them, he said they have a thousand cooperatives and each has at least 200 members, so if you multiply it by a thousand, you will discover that’s huge.
“We’ll collaborate with them so that governments in their different states, they can invite our group to go down and train the farmers directly. When they invite us, we’ll teach them one on one on how to use those natural means to preserve their foods.”