Abattoir workers, meat sellers deny using tyres to process meat - ...

Tag : Dried Mangoes
Abattoir workers, meat sellers deny using tyres to process meat -Lament on govt insensitivity to problems
By Seye Adeniyi - updated: Wednesday 09-07-2008

Huge refuse dump at Bodija abattoir Apparently disturbed by the implication of a recent media report ofunhygienic practices going on in most of our abattoirs which alsorevealed the unethical practices of some butchers and abattoirworkers, of using worn-our tyres and polythene materials like nylonand used plastics to burn the hairs on the skin of slaughteredanimals especially cattles and goats during the processing of rawmeat in preparation for sales and consumption, the leadership ofall the seven associations under the umbrella of the National Unionof Butchers’ Association, Ibadan, Oyo State chapter, haveswung into action, warnng members to stop this unhealthy practices.

They have also risen in defence of their genuine registeredmembers, adding that “no genuine and registered members ofthe association will ever use tyres or polythene materials likeplastics and nylon to burn slaughtered animals in order to removethe hair from animal skin. Although the leadership of theassociation said it could be true that some unscrupulous butchersin the state are guilty of the alleged offense, but such people arenot authentic members of the association.
Speaking with Tribune Agriculture during a follow-up investigation to the earlier report on theissue at the Bodija abattoir, Ibadan, Oyo State, a leading memberof the butchers’ association commonly referred to as Egbe Eleran Isun, Alhaji Mufu Jimoh (a.k.a Mufu Soldier) who is also the chairman,Ifelodun Butchers’ Association, Bodija explained that atBodija abattoir, there is no butcher using tyre to process rawmeat, adding that “there is no way any body operating in thisabattoir can engage in such unhealthy, unethical practiceespecially with the presence of environmental officers andveterinary doctors.
“Using tyres or polythene materials to burn cattle or goat isindeed dangerous to the health of consumers. We all know this, soare we going to endanger the health of consumers of meat justbecause we want to make sales? It is not possible,” hestated. Mr. Muyideen Aiyetoro, the spokesperson for theassociation, who is also the chairman of Ifelodun Number 2 ButchersAssociation (Eleran Sisun) , Ooje Market, Ibadan, seriously expressed unsatisfaction at thereport, but warned those butchers that are using worn-out tyres toburn slaughtered animals to desist from such an illegal andunhealthy practice.
Aiyetoro said immediately they saw the newspaper report, theassociation decided to set up a monitoring and investigationcommittee tagged: Special Task Force to arrest anybody found usingtyres to burn slaughtered animals. Furthermore, they lamented theinsensitivity of Ibadan North Local Government Council to the poorenvironmental / sanitation problems in the Bodija market despitethe huge amount of money the local government council is makingfrom the market everyday. They complaint that the refuse dump nearthe abattoir is enough to spark an outbreak of diseases in theentire market,and so had to engage the service of private refusecollector to clear the garbage despite several complaints to thecouncil. (Continued from last week ) NSPRI driers, answer to Nigeria’s major food storage problem
By Sade Oguntola
ARE those technologies accessible and affordable?
They are accessible and affordable. They are very easy to adopttoo. One thing that is common with our farmers is the fact thatafter they have spent so much money producing , when it comes topost-harvest, they lose their patience. They just want to disposeoff the commodity and get the money no matter how small it is. Theyshould just endure a little bit more and sell off a few during theproduction season, process the remaining or store part of it for afew more months to increase their income. If they can do that, thenyou would not be seeing food getting wasted. If everybody canpreserve or add value to what they cannot sell fresh, then you haveit throughout the year till the next production season.
Are these technologies extended to artisans to learn about?
This institute has trained artisans in the production of ourmultipurpose driers and we are willing to train many more of them.This year for instance, the National Agriculture Extension LiaisonInstitute has packaged some workshops together with NSPRI and weare going to train more, all in the fight against food insecurity.We want Nigeria to be secure in food. Anyone able to get thisdrier, very simple, no removing parts, no replacement of anythingonce you have it and can use it for many things including mangoes,pineapple etc.
We also have technologies for processing into juices, tomatojuices, dried tomatoes etc. Anybody that can acquire the drier willremoved poverty from his life. There is the multipurpose drierwhich cost about N100,000, and the hybrid drier which uses kerosineand solar energy is more efficient and with a higher capacity. Thiscost N300,000. So if you acquire that, you will produce a lot ofthese commodities and stop the wastage and that removes poverty inthe life of anybody. It increases employment, increase income bothto the farmer and the processor and in the long run, we are foodsecured. With it, we can have our fruits and vegetables all yearround.
At the state and federal government levels, we can store in inertgas atmosphere silos. A few months ago, we released the cowpeastored this way in our office in Ibadan. That can be adopted bygovernments at all levels to keep all our grains - rice, wheat, andother commodities the minister is focusing on. They can be storedin those silos.
Is it an expensive technology?
It is more expensive than the small driers I earlier talked about.But it is the initial capital that is high but in the long run, itis cheaper when you consider how much you are using to store atonne of commodity in a year. Any entrepreneur, especially ourmerchants that trade in these grains can afford it and use it tostore their grains for years. It is not a question of storing fromone production season to another, it can stored for as many seasonsas so desired.
Is it better than the silos in our grain reserves?
The grain reserve silos are the conventional silos imported toNigeria and they use pesticides in them. This technology of storingin inert atmosphere which NSPRI developed in conjunction with theItalian government does not use any form of pesticide whatsoeverbut only an inert gas which is Nitrogen. So it is better for safetyreasons because you do not need pesticides and it maintains thequality of the stored product and so on. In the really sense of itNigeria should not find itself in any form of food crisis if whatwe producing now is well preserved.
Are farmers coming up to ask on these storage technologies?
They are. We have various commodity association of farmers likecassava processors coming for proposal to train them . Forinstance, many in the kolanut association never knew that kolanutcan be dried and exported. Those driers we have can dry kolanutvery well so that it meets export standards. There is a big marketfor it because of its caffeiene content.
The Federal government has a presidential initiative on export ofproducts to UK and EU. NSPRI is the chairperson technical committeeto advise on it. We are working on it. The conditioning centre tostore yam is underconstruction in Nasarawa State. The ones thatwill serve for fruits and vegetables will be constructed in Oyostate, that for pineapples will be constructed in Akwa Ibom state.Those for sesame seeds and mangoes will be in Yobe state. As soonas Nasarawa is finished, we are moving to Oyo state because Oyostate government has given a land for it. Farmers will also beinvolved, there is going to be lots of capacity building. Therewill be model farms and monitor their production to make sure thatall these pests do not come in from the production stage to store.We are also going to monitor them that they store to specificationsfor export.
Issue of food toxins, and farmers using pesticides in a wrong way
The reports has been on beans, yam flour and mangoes, all cases ofusing the wrong pesticide. When you apply pesticide to food instore, then there is a problem. Many of our traders cannotdifferentiate between pesticides to be used on the field and thoseto be used food in storage.
Pesticides to be used on food should not be persistent, withinthree months of storage their effect should wear off so that thosethings killing the insect are no longer effective. The institute isalso trying to use biotechnology to use local herbs to preservefood rather than using chemicals. We have that which involves usingpepper fruit and some inert dust to preserve grain .
Are farmers on the know of this?
We are still perfecting the tech nology before we push this out andthey are not anything new. Our ancient fathers have been usingashes to store their commodities. But these are more effective thanashes because it is the abrasive nature of those dusts that killthe insects, so we are looking at other herbs like neem. Neem isalso very effective both for yams and grains.