Food security through local grain production: priority for Nigeria
KANO, NIGERIA – EQS Newswire – 8 August 2023 – Nigeria, and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, is heavily dependent on imported wheat, in particular from Russia and Ukraine. With a growing population, food sovereignty and security through local grain production is essential to the region’s future prosperity. Bühler is providing the technology to achieve this with its Grain Processing and Innovation Center (GPIC), which will open early in 2024 in Kano, northern Nigeria. The GPIC will support local producers in the development of safe and affordable food.
The GPIC will provide the technology and solutions to support regional food processors in the development of safe and affordable foods using local grains, such as sorghum, millet, maize, soybeans, groundnuts, pulses, and tuber crops, including cassava. Based in a three-floor building spanning an area of 480 m2, the GPIC will help to bridge the gap between the test bench and industrial-scale production without the requirement of large investments by producers. Its grain cleaning, optical sorting, dehulling, preparation, tempering, and milling sections will ensure process validation, optimize the production process, and act as a center for developing new products.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by the end of this century, Nigeria – Africa’s biggest economy – will be the world’s second most populous country after India. By 2050, Nigeria will be home to half a billion people and by 2100 this number will have increased to nearly 800 million. This rapid growth, driven by a high fertility rate, will place enormous strain on the price of available food and the already fragile social services and infrastructure.
