Climate-smart agriculture
Bamboo is being used as a sustainable alternative for building affordable greenhouses in Nigeria. With the construction of an initial 80 greenhouses underway, the Nigerian company behind the project has already committed to expanding installation to meet rising demands.
Bamboo greenhouses are being used by Nigerian farmers to protect crops from unpredictable weather conditions. Since 2015, GCity Farm Venture Nigeria Ltd – a private Nigerian firm – has hired Kenyan expertise to help install over 80 bamboo greenhouses in different states. The greenhouses are used to grow different varieties of peppers, tomatoes and leafy vegetables by established farmers and entrepreneurs, who have identified the cheap greenhouses as an opportunity to earn a more stable income from farming.
GCity has confirmed that it plans to continue expanding bamboo greenhouse installations to meet rising demands. “The bamboos are sourced in Nigeria and no doubt there is growing awareness of the need to plant more,” states Njeru Barnabas, a GCity Farm Venture executive.
In Kenya and Tanzania, bamboo is in high demand as a building material for desks and luxury flooring, for example. However, commercial usage of bamboo is not yet widespread in Nigeria, making it relatively cheap to use for greenhouses. Constructing a 0.05 ha bamboo greenhouse costs N820,000 (€2,466), almost half the cost of a similar size metal greenhouse at N1.5m (€4,511).
Bamboo can also be recycled; after 4-10 years, at the end of its lifespan as a greenhouse, farmers can compost it to improve soil structure and reduce soil surface erosion. Additionally, unlike wood and metal, bamboo is not prone to warping under changing atmospheric conditions. Sourcing the bamboo from local farmers, close to where the greenhouses are installed, reduces transportation costs and the carbon footprint.
With a changing and unpredictable climate affecting many farms, greenhouses enable farmers to protect crops from periods of excessive or delayed rainfall; drip irrigation is installed inside the bamboo greenhouses to provide a steady water supply. Control of diseases and pests is also much easier, including for tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta), which resulted in severe shortages in tomato yields across many states in Nigeria during 2016.
Tomato greenhouse farms have an average annual yield of 200 t/ha of tomatoes compared to 7-30 t/ha in open fields. Considering the increased income from these higher and more reliable yields (during periods of seasonal scarcity tomato prices can go up by 800%), low cost bamboo greenhouses are proving a strong return on investment.
