Pyro Consortium introduces modern tech to mitigate post harvest losts, others

By Abubakar Yunusa

PyroPower Africa Consortium, led by PyroGenesys, has introduced modern technology called pyrocheme technology to mitigate post-harvest losses, climate change .
Speaking to newsmen in Nigeria, the co-founder, co-inventor, and Chief Executive Officer of PyroGenesys, Simon Ighofose, explained that pyrochemie technology can take any type of agricultural waste that is combustible, heat it up without oxygen, and break it down into two major parts.
Simon explained that the first part is a vapor, which is a fuel, and they burn that vapor to generate renewable electricity and heat, while the second part comes out as a solid, like charcoal.
He said the farmers now have a locally produced biofertilizer that can outperform imported inorganic NPK, which reduces their soil fertility. Soil fertility needs carbon to make it more fertile. So when they use our biofertilizer, they enrich their soils.
Speaking about post-harvest loss, Simon said there are farmers who lose about 50% of their crops. Tomatoes are an excellent example. “We have another project in Kano that’s going to be refrigerating about 500 tons of onions,” he said.
“Sometimes they lose 50% of that crop. So we’re converting rice husk waste into renewable electricity to support refrigeration that prevents them from losing 50% of their crop.”
“In Ibadan, we are converting the harvest waste and, through our partners, providing the farmers with the support, agronomic support, mechanized services, and agronomic inputs they need. That same hectare of land that might only produce 5 tons per hectare can now yield 25 tons per hectare.
“So the farmers’ revenue in a single season of growing cassava could increase fivefold. If you have a fivefold increase in food production in a single season, you’re going to notice the impact on food production and food security in Nigeria.
“We want to replicate that in rice, maize, tomatoes, onions, and all crops where we can show that we can increase production, reduce post-harvest losses, provide the infrastructure that helps farmers either dry, refrigerate, or semi-process their products, and get a higher return from higher quality and higher yields.”
The Senior Manager of Policy Agribusiness and Commercialization at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Dr. Daniel Kyalo Willy, said they are supporting the projects in the areas of mobilization and capacity training.
He said, “AATF has two elements to the projects. One is the mobilization of the farmers involved in cassava production. After we mobilize the farmers, we train them on good agronomic practices because we want them to increase the yield of their cassava tubers apart from supplying the biomass.
“The second element is providing mechanization services to these farmers because they need to produce with less drudgery. So we mechanize their production.”