Agriculture
Beer In Agriculture
Brewers depend heavily on farmers because, without a consistent supply of high-quality grains and hops, one cannot ensure the production of quality beer.
By U.S. government definition, all beverages – including beer – are considered food. Beer is an important agricultural product, and brewers and farmers have a highly synergistic relationship with a global footprint.
INGRIDIENTS
The primary ingredients of beer include water, yeast, hops, and fermentable grains–including barley, corn, rice, rye, wheat, oats, sorghum, and spelt. Barley is the most widely used grain in beer production, and each year barley farmers plant 3.5 million acres of barley – enough to produce 190 million barrels of beer. That’s more than 62 billion 12 oz. servings of beer in the U.S alone.
Enjoying a cold beer with family and friends is a simple pleasure, especially in times like now when things we once considered routine, like restocking the beer supply in our fridge, no longer seem quite so easy truth is,
Man Brewed Beer In Southern China 9,000 Years Ago.
HISTORY
People in southern China learnt to brew beer from crops and plants about 9,000 years ago, according to findings during an excavation at the Qiaotou site in Yiwu City, known as the world’s supermarket, in east China’s Zhejiang Province.
Early evidence of beer drinking was found in an ancient platform mound at the site, as residues of starch, phytolith and fungi were discovered in pottery vessels.
Fungal remains suggesting an abundance of molds and yeasts were found to be close to typical microorganism used in wine making in today’s East and Southeast Asia. The ancient techniques are also similar to the traditional methods of making rice wine in Yiwu today.
Humans may have observed moldy crops and found the yeast, said Wang Jiajing, one of the researchers carrying out the study.
However, at the time, locals had just begun to domesticate wild rice, and so the grain yield was relatively low, making alcoholic beverages a luxury, according to the researchers.
The Qiaotou site, first excavated in 2014, belongs to a Neolithic culture known as the Shangshan, which originated in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China’s longest waterway. Rice cultivation is considered to have been born at the Shangshan sites.
THE NIGERIAN STORY
Although its earliest ideas pre-dates the second world war (WWII), the very practicality of this assumption did not birth child till after the War.
The Nigerian Breweries was incorporated in 1946 and the first bottle of its brand, the STAR Lager, rolled off the bottling lines of its Lagos brewery in June 1949.
As the company expanded into other regions, it established more breweries such as Aba Brewery in 1957 and Kaduna Brewery in 1963.
By 1971, the company was one of the largest industries within the country in terms of capital investment. In 1982, another brewery was added in Ibadan.
In September 1993, the company acquired its fifth brewery in Enugu, and in October 2003, its sixth brewery, sited at Ameke in Enugu. Ama Brewery began brewing on the 22 March 2003 and at 3 million hectolitres is the largest brewery in Nigeria.
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Background
Mechanization is a multi-dimensional concept that is widely used in agriculture. There is, however, a major difference between the application of mechanization in developed and that of developing countries, for instance, in Nigeria there is an urgent need for mechanization in South East agriculture.
The nations of the predominantly dominated developing countries of the African continent, tend to design their own strategies in food security given the already existing challenges they face in all aspects of their economy.
Such as feeding a growing population, reducing poverty, protecting the environment, managing the effects of climate change, and fighting malnutrition all of which may further contribute to a reduction in economic growth and political instability.
History
Ever since the beginning of agriculture threshing was done by hand with a flail, requiring a great deal of labor. The threshing machine, which was invented in 1794 but not widely used for several more decades, simplified the operation and allowed the use of animal power.
Read Also: Nigeria’s Relevance In Global Agriculture
Methods
To achieve the objective of a self-sustaining agricultural mechanization strategy, a SWOT analysis technique was used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so as to help us provide a framework by which policies can be defined.
Here is a breakdown of the types of Agricultural machinery below;
Mowers
Backhoe
Harrow
Cultivator
Rake
Tractor
Combine Harvester
Sprayers
Chain Saw
Brush cutters
Saw Mills.
Nigerian Adoption
Coming down to the Nigerian scene, it is easy to see clearly how agro-business has not only become a mainstay to the country but also a means of generating massive revenue to fund the nation’s ever teaming projects and meet the people’s needs on food security as well as in key areas of production, marketing, and distribution of produce around the Entire country. As well as how to make it more sustainable.
However, farm mechanization has been adopted in Nigeria as there are some big farms in Nigeria that use big and sophisticated machines to carry out most of their farming operations. But in spite of the fact that mechanization has been adopted, the country is still facing problems experienced by various communities which do not use agricultural mechanization.
South East
Looking at the southeast, the reverse is the case, this is because even though a large percentage of the population is involved in agriculture (over 70%), only a few of them have access to modern farm machines and technology. The larger percentage of the farming population is still using primitive methods and tools to perform their farming operations.
Obviously, this has led to low yields implying that the amount of goods produced is not enough to meet the needs of the teaming population of Nigeria. Mechanized farming in the southeast, however, should be greatly encouraged because as climate change continues to impact the world, the lush green geographical terrain and fertile land of the Southeastern part of the country is a home bed as well as a good spot for widespread opportunities through mechanization in South East Agriculture.
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NIGERIAN AGRICULTURE
As a thriving country, Over 70 percent of Nigerians engage in the agriculture sector mainly at a subsistence level.
Nigeria has 70.8 million hectares of agriculture land area with maize, cassava, guinea corn, yam beans, millet and rice being the major crops. Nigeria’s rice production rose from 3.7 million metric tons in 2017 to 4.0 million metric tons in 2018. Inspite of this, only 57percent of the 6.7 million metric tons of rice consumed in Nigeria annually is locally produced leading to a deficit of about 3 million metric tons, which is either imported or smuggled into the country illegally. To stimulate local production, the Government banned importation of rice in 2019.
CHALLENGES
Despite the contribution to the economy, Nigeria’s agricultural sector faces many challenges which impact on its productivity. These include; poor land tenure system, low level of irrigation farming, climate change and land degradation.
Others are low technology, high production cost and poor distribution of inputs, limited financing, high post-harvest losses and poor access to markets.
Although these challenges have stifled agricultural productivity affecting the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP as well as increased food imports due population rise hence declining levels of food sufficiency. For instance, between 2016 and 2019 Nigeria’s cumulative agricultural imports stood at N3.35 trillion, four times higher than the agricultural export of N803 billion within the same period.
AGRO-BUSINESS RELEVANCE
Between January and March 2021, the agricultural sector contributed to 22.35 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product.
The Federal Government recorded N817.35 billion trade in agricultural goods in the second quarter 2021, we have learnt.
A document that was obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said there was N165.27 billion from export of agricultural goods while the import component of the trade N652.08 billion.
The Document Was Titled Foreign Trade Statistics –Q2 2021.
On its agricultural goods sector, the NBS said: “The total value of trade in agricultural goods in Q2 2021 stood at N817.35billion.
“The export component of this trade totaled N165.27billion while the import was valued at N652.08billion.”
EXPORTS
The data further noted that the top most of these exported agricultural products were good fermented Nigerian Cocoa beans exported mainly to Netherlands (N16.48 billion), Malaysia (N9.32billion) and united States (N8.41billion).
It revealed that the next leading product was Cashew nuts, in shell exported to Vietnam (N33.54billion) and India (N3.24billion).
According to the NBS, the other major exports under this sector include Sesamum seeds whether or not broken exported to Japan in the value worth N7.28billion , China N7.14billion and Coconuts N9.94billion respectively.
IMPORTS
The document, however, said there was importation of Durum wheat (not in seed) worth N70.37 billion from United States, Durum wheat also came from Canada (N54.48billion), Argentina (N35.04billion), Lithuania N32.24billion and Latvia N25.91billion.
Continuing, it said: “The next product imported under this category was Blue whitings from Russia (N27.23 billion) and Netherlands (N13.41billion). During the quarter, mackerel worth N9.61billion was imported from Netherlands and N4.91billion from Japan.
“There was also importation of Malt, not roasted from Belgium (N21.42 billion) and France (N4.48billion). “Other major importation was Crude palm oil from Singapore in the value worth N15.09billion and India N11.68billion).”
DISCOVERY
This statistics obtained has shown that Nigeria as a nation has tremendous Value to the world and global Agricultural Trade.
Reason being that the Great African nation not only is one of Africa’s largest exporter of Agricultural produce, but as well is a huge Importer of Agric & Agro allied raw materials thereby breaching the gap between demand & supply as well as balancing the scales of preference in the Worlds Agric-trade, demand & supply.
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DESCRIPTION
Palm wine, known by several local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and is common in various parts of Africa, the Caribbean, South America, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Micronesia.
PRODUCTION
The sap is extracted and collected by a tapper. Typically the sap is collected from the cut flower of the palm tree. A container is fastened to the flower stump to collect the sap. The white liquid that initially collects tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented. An alternative method is the felling of the entire tree. Where this is practiced, a fire is sometimes lit at the cut end to facilitate the collection of sap.
Palm sap begins fermenting immediately after collection, due to natural yeasts in the air (often spurred by residual yeast left in the collecting container). Within two hours, fermentation yields an aromatic wine of up to 4% alcohol content, mildly intoxicating and sweet. The wine may be allowed to ferment longer, up to a day, to yield a stronger, more sour and acidic taste, which some people prefer as Longer fermentation produces vinegar instead of stronger wine.
Palm wine production. Palm tree tapper harvesting sap from a palm tree in Senegal. He has climbed up the tree and is secured by a rope harness. He is using bottles to collect the sap from cuts made in the bark of the tree. The sap will then be fermented to produce palm wine.
Palm wine may be distilled to create a stronger drink, which goes by different names depending on the region (e.g., arrack, village gin, charayam, and country whiskey).
NIGERIAN STORY
Fresh Palm Wine (Nkwu Ocha )
(Ndi Igbo ekele mu unu!!!), this is the common language we see and hear around situations or occasions accustomed to palm wine, or Nkwu Ocha as it’s popularly known, it’s a traditional brew gotten from tapping palm trees (Enu Nkwu) & widely accepted as part of local delicacies, it’s usually white hence the name, and has enormous advantages to its consumption resulting from its natural ingredients which are deemed healthy by medical practitioners.
Asides its use in occasions its still an important ingredient in the day to day consumption of certain meals like Bush meat, nkwobi, the popular ugba and okporoko etc. It’s become one of the essential ingredients for enjoyment galore in which people, including foreigners travel far and wide to come have a sip of this traditional wine.
BY-NAME
Throughout Nigeria, this is commonly called Nkwu Ocha or ogogoro. In some parts of Cameroon, it is known as Emu. In parts of southern Ghana, distilled palm wine is called akpeteshi or burukutu. In Togo and Benin, it is called sodabe, while in Tunisia it is called lagmi. In coastal parts of Kenya, it is known as “mnazi”. Chang’aa can be applied to wounds to stop heavy bleeding. In Ivory Coast, it is called “koutoukou”.
WORTHY NOTES
Palm wine tapping is mentioned in the novel Things Fall Apart by the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and is central to the plot of the novel The Palm Wine Drunkard by Nigerian author Amos Tutuola. Palm wine plays an important role in many ceremonies in parts of Nigeria such as among the Igbo peoples, and elsewhere in Central and Western Africa. Guests at weddings, birth celebrations, and funeral wakes are served generous quantities. Palm wine is often infused with medicinal herbs to remedy a wide variety of physical complaints. As a token of respect to deceased ancestors, many drinking sessions begin with a small amount of palm wine spilled on the ground. Palm wine is enjoyed by men and women, although women usually drink it in less public venues.
TRADITIONAL APPEAL
In parts of southeastern Nigeria, namely Igboland, palm wine is locally referred to as “mmanya ocha” (literally, “white drink”), with “ngwo” and “nkwu” variants. It plays a very important role in traditional Igbo settings. In Urualla, for instance, and other “ideator” towns, it is the drink of choice for traditional weddings.
A young man who is going for the first introduction at his in-laws’ house is required to bring palm wine with him. There are varying gallons of palm wine required, depending on the customs of the different regions in Igboland.
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