Post by Ismail Auwal Garba (@ismail_auwal_garba)

A cold room can look impressive on commissioning day. The questions come afterwards: what does it cost to use, who repairs it, and can a small farmer afford a space?

Today is World Food Day. FAO’s campaign puts innovation at the centre of the conversation, including how food is stored, transported and sold.

For Nigeria, that is an invitation to ask practical questions about agricultural projects. A new machine or application should come with an explanation of whose problem it solves and what it costs them to use it.

Before celebrating a project, we should ask farmers and traders what changed: did less produce spoil, did transport become easier, and did their earnings improve after expenses?

Publicly funded schemes should publish those results, including what failed. That would give the next community something useful to judge before adopting the same approach.

Which would make the biggest difference to food reaching your local market: storage, transport, electricity or access to finance?

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