Farmers embrace SelfChill technology

Ecotutu, in collaboration with the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) and Solar Cooling Engineering from Germany, has developed SelfChill technology, a solar-powered cooling solution that helps reduce post-harvest losses in the country. Stakeholders in the cold chain industry, at a meeting in Lagos, tagged ‘Promoting Innovative Solar Cooling Technologies for Nigeria’, unanimously agreed that if the technology is well adopted across the country, it is capable of tackling food wastages, which has been a thorn in the flesh of majority of farmers.

The experts noted that the NSPRI had adapted the technology for the Nigerian context with research and the cleantech company, Ecotutu made the technology affordable and accessible for the Nigerian market and had become the distributor of the solar cooling technology. Dr. Michael Omodara of NSPRI expressed joy that his organisation partnered with Solar Cooling Engineering in Germany, which actually invented the Selfchill cooling system. “We have worked on it for the past three year and we have made a lot of progress. One of our main concerns is to see how this technology can be deployed across the country and this technology has the advantage in the sense that you can build a module and use it.

“You don’t have to build the gigantic structure, you can build them in sizes and as your capacity increases, you can increase. You can actually add to the structure that you have and what we have done in the last few years is to see how we can domesticate the technology. Omodara said NSPRI has people who have technical knowledge, who can build the structure from the scratch and also provide technical services. “You don’t need to be afraid if you are using this technology. We have people that can help you fix it, if you have any challenges; there are people who have been trained for that purpose”, he said. The Consul-General of the German Embassy in Nigeria, Weert Boner, said that there is an urgent need for a cooling system in Nigeria while that the cooling system is one of the most important aspects of the agricultural value chain.

He said that the innovation would greatly reduce production losses, which demonstrate a significant challenge in Nigeria. The Chief Executive Officer, Ecotutu, Babajide Oluwase,  said that the cold chain had been around for a while and so is the need to preserve farm produce to feed the nation’s teeming population. He said Ecotutu provides cold storage services and logistics for farmers, traders and aggregators and ensures that they get the value of their fresh produce and prevent the bulk of it going to waste as is the case today. “From the point of production at the farm gate, Ecotutu is facilitating either storage or logistics of food, leaving it fresh and in its best quality as possible. We deploy this kind of facility in farm clusters, food points and markets”, he added.

The Co-Founder, Ecotutu, Michael Akinsete, said Ecotutu aims to become a household name in the agricultural and the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria. He added that Ecotutu had engaged in community training, so as to make people, who need this technology understand the need for cold chains. He noted that some of their training programme had helped to change some cultural mindset that supports post-harvest losses. Akinsete also noted that Ecotutu was increasing the awareness of the technology and facilitating rapid adoption while selling the components.

The Chief Executive Officer, Solar Cooling Engineering, Dr. Victor Toledo, while speaking on SelfChill approach and applications, said that the technology is solar powered, which are designed and constructed in Nigeria according to customers’ needs using German technology. He said that the technology is an automated solar powered cooling system that can be applied to various agricultural value chains. He stated that the technology can store agricultural products and other commodities under the required optimal temperature and relative humidity and that it can be built to meet customers’ unique needs.