By Editor
Prof. Olubunmi Akinola, Ayedun-Ekiti born Professor of Electronics and Control Systems has made a gigantic stride in agric sector aimed at combating the age-long post-harvest losses of perishable agricultural products.
After several years of rigorous research and experiments, the world class engineering prodigy who is currently teaching at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Deparrment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has invented a smart storage that will preserve fruits and vegetables for about one year.
The smart storage, known as “HarvestHarbor”, was produced with the use of 100% locally sourced materials, which was meant to reduce foreign inputs in a such a project, thereby, reducing capital flight and cutting the exchange rate disparity in favour of Nigerian currency.
In a chat with our correspondent over the weekend, the former lecturer at the Ekiti State University, EKSU said;
“Smart Storage for Fresh Fruit Crops is a cutting-edge solution set to revolutionise the storage and preservation of fresh fruit crops, ensuring longer shelf and superior quality with a view to extending the shelf-life and eliminates post-harvest losses in the production value chains of vegetables and fruit crops production.
Speaking further, Akinola said;
“The system is designed for perishable fruits such as tomatoes, mango, watermelon, orange, carrot, pineapple, bell pepper/peppers, cucumber, pawpaw, banana, plantain and vegetables, and maintain critical atmospheric parameters extended shelf-life while simultaneously maintaining the special features of the stored fruits such as firmness, ripening, colour index and actual weight as close as possible to the fresh fruits.
“Fresh matured harvested fruits have a short shelf life of 7 to 10 days at room temperature leading to high rate of loss after harvest. This problem causes unavailability of the fruits a short while after postharvest period.
According to him;, “HarvestHarbor which is a microcontroller- based system eliminates this problem by keeping the fruits in its fresh state where all the conditions necessary to guarantee long-term availability are precisely provided, thereby increases their shelf life without any detrimental effect on the quality as it ensures all-around year availability.
“The merits of storing fruit crops in this controlled chamber include slowing down the metabolic activities and respiration processes during storage which consequently prevents spoilage, minimise waste, and increase the fruits availability. In addition, it prevents post-harvesting pest attacks, diseases, and physical loss, hence, improving the quality of fruit items available to the populace during their off-season period.
“This storage chamber employed the method of vapour compression cooling and controlled atmosphere process for its operation. The system demonstrates a successful implementation of a solar-powered control atmospheric system for storage of perishable fruit crops.”
He added that the country would be able to break the jinx of increasing post-harvest losses projected to be around N14.4trn annual threshold with the introduction of Harvest Harbour.
Testifying to the potency of the product, Prof Akinola expressed confidence in Harvest Harbour saying it is most efficient technology in Nigeria.
“I stand to be challenged, that this storage can preserve fruits and vegetables for a fairly long period of time without them getting damaged.
“Like in the case of onion value chain where we have more than 50% post-harvest loss. We can cut that down to about 20%, if we have this technology installed in some clusters, say in Sokoto, Kebbi axis, and ditto for peppers, oranges, mango. So, instead of going outside to import concentrates of say, orange, to make fruit juices, you can easily secure the harvest of oranges here and develop those concentrates here.
“This will cut down our imports, save our currency and create employment for us. So, the technology is at the very heart of economic prosperity for us. As simple as the technology looks, it’s very powerful in creating or laying the foundation for the Nigerian economic prosperity”, he noted.
