Newsletter-Jan-June-2015

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Reducing post-harvest loss One potential impact of reducing post-harvest loss is the financial benefits it brings to small scale farmers. Presently, it African farmers are losing $4billion worth of trade as a result of this problem. Hence, many are unable to provide healthy diet for their family, to pay their children’s school fees, to pay for medical care, and to have a decent living. But overcoming this challenge will create jobs among the youths, and increase the tax revenue for the government. SFM Land in Osun State Lincolnshire V Hunger Campaign The LvH was launched in March 2014 by our patron, the Rt Revd Christopher Lowson, the Bishop of Lincoln. The objective is to raise awareness about global hunger and the profile of the UN’s Millennium Development Goal, i.e, poverty and hunger). We hope that other cities around the world will adopt one of the MDGs to form a network of cities promoting and supporting initiatives by governments and international organisations to resolve these problems. In Lincolnshire, SFM is promoting it with a song competition for schools and the school with the most downloads will win £1000 worth of musical instruments. We have received a lot of interest from schools and we are looking forward a successful Awards Night on Saturday 26 September, <strong>2015</strong> at the Showroom, Lincoln. Donation to Orphanages Thrice a year, SFM team in Nigeria visits local orphanages for children and physically challenged with a variety of food items. The aim is to reduce food poverty among vulnerable people. To support this project, please donate online.
Solar Powered Cold Stores By Martin Hodgkinson Dr Ola posed me an interesting challenge. He has contact with 100 + farmers in Nigeria producing 3300 tons of food each year of which 70% perishes or is wasted within 3 weeks of harvesting because of inadequate storage and no distribution facilities. Martin can you set up a distribution depot Well I don't have £2-£3 million on a peg ready to use. What my friends and I have is a 'can do approach' and loads of creative problem solving ideas. There is also 12+ hours per day of sun in Nigeria. If the farmers can keep the food for 6 weeks rather than 3, they may be able to use or sell 30% more. That could double their income with still a 40% waste factor. The initial idea was to use a solar powered refrigerated container. The Chinese sell them for $40,000 - $50,000, which have to be connected to back up land line power not available to our farmers. and much too expensive. Following discussions with over 12 Engineers and Builders our specification solution is gradually being fine tuned, to take account of what’s available in Nigeria and the technical details necessary to provide a 'Solar Powered Cold Room'. Where are we now We are still at the initial design stage of working out the best method of producing a cold store that will prolong the life of the food produced. We hope to interest some University Mechanical Engineer students to work with us to fine tune the design to enable us to build a proto-type on our land in Nigeria. The proto-type will probably use locally made blocks to form a cold store with an air lock and we think a solar powered air conditioning unit on the side of the cold store. An example of a locally built coldroom in Lagos for commercial purpose.
Page 1: Shepherd Food Ministries Biannual N
Page 5 and 6: Solar Powered Dryer By Andrew Sheph
Page 7 and 8: Norma Murrain Pictures from ASD 201
Page 9 and 10: Djembe drummers at ASD 2014 By Bob

Newsletter-Jan-June-2015

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