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By Fortune Eromosele
European Union (EU-Commission) in partnership with the Gallery of Code, a research, development and consulting agency has unveiled a smart technology(model) that will address food storage challenges and boost food production curbing rising food insecurity in Nigeria.
Mr Oscar Ekponimo, Managing Director, Gallery of Code, the host institution for the ST ARTS 4 Africa, a science technology and arts driven project said that the STARTS project, which serves the umbrella body” for this initiative says the project is aimed at addressing issues around food and water in Nigeria.
“STARTS was initiated in 2016 but now there is a dedicated version for Africa, Gallery of Code is the host institution for Nigeria.“Prior to selection, every host institution was meant to come up with crafting ,a challenge and we were to focus on food and water in Nigeria.
Ekponimo stated that EU is pushing art driven innovations, with artistic perspective because innovation is more practical and impactful when it is artistically driven .
“Out of over 300 plus applications from all over Africa, Jubril Baba, a Nigerian was selected and supported by the EU to implement a model ,a yam barn storage model that will use AI to check and monitor the change in climate conditions and also monitor the air quality around the yam , timing for spoilage.
“This will automatically control food wastage and address food insecurity, this will be the first of it’s kind and it’s still at the take-off stage,
‘We have just finished the reflection stage and going further to the actualization stage and am happy to say that there will be a final exhibition in Nigeria and Jubril has also been selected to exhibit in a festival in Austria from Sept 4-Sept 8.” he added.
Dr Femi Adeluyi ,National Co-ordinator, National Talent Export Program (NATEP) ,a new initiate of the Federal Government said that the project is in full alignment with what the President wants to achieve with NATEP and talent investments.
“What Gallery of Code and Jubril our artist here is doing with sponsorship from the EU is what we want to see and collaborate with.
“This is a real good model which can be further enhanced and elaborated upon ,today it’s yams, tomorrow it could be something else and we can leverage on this one.
“We want opportunities where our artist’s can showcase our skills and products abroad and benefit from investments , this can do a lot to our socio-economic strength.
“It shows we have a lot of value that we can bring to the table,he was selected from 300 plus applications,this initiative will not stop in Nigeria.
“This is something that will be adapted and expanded to other countries, this will enhance our collaboration with so many other countries who will want to replicate and adopt this initiative to curb food insecurity.
Looking forward to collaborating with Gallery of Code and our artist, Jubril on this great initiative.” he added.
On his part Jubril Baba, beneficiary of the STARTS 4 Africa grant who spoke about the initiative stressed that the core of the project was taken from our traditional past models like cooling of water in gourds and looking into more technologically advanced methods of making them work better.
*It is a prototype yam barn, a modular storage system where the yams will be slotted in using an array of sensors that can check the climate conditions, air quality and equally shield the yams from too much sunlight .
“During our preliminary research we visited different states in the North East, and discovered that our of 1500 yams harvested,600 will be lost due to lack of good storage systems.
According to him, the case of Taraba is very peculiar because they produce the most yams in Nigeria, having different weather conditions in two main parts ,one area is very hot and the other is temperate which is the mambilla plateau.
“In the case of a crisis, a storage material like this will work because the model ,a modernized yam barn can easily be disassembled move and assembled.
“For climate change we are looking at sourcing local materials to regulate the temperature around the barn”, he said.
Patricia Carvalho ,a partner from Europe said that it will be very intriguing to get to the core of what artists can do using AI, science and technology, and also the arts to push food and water sectors in Nigeria. She applauded the initiative and re-affirmed her support for the project.