Jusper Machogu Further Education Support

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Hello, my name is Jusper Machogu from Kenya. I am a 27 years old professional Agricultural Engineer with an immense passion for Post-Harvest Technology. I have been brought up in an agricultural background and have been a part of it from age 12, helping my parents feed our livestock, tending to our crops, and spraying our fields, among other farm practices. But, unfortunately, in an economy without sufficient energy, children have to help around.

Agricultural engineering is the Physics in agriculture, namely Farm Power and Machinery, Farm structures, Soil water and irrigation, Post-Harvest Processing/Technology, Domestic waste management, and Renewable energy. Agriculture requires a lot of energy. With urbanization and technological advancement, Africa will get to a level where a tiny percentage of its population is actively involved in agriculture, a measure of modern human civilization. Direct food production is responsible for 1% of the total energy consumption in the US. The other processes in between harvest-what are termed as Post-Harvest Processes- and getting the food on the table are responsible for 19-20% of the total energy consumption, an area that requires more professionals.

Energy is the one sector that drives all the other industries. An average African uses energy an average person used in France and Germany in 1860; if that is not enough, the same amount of energy an American uses in 19 days for one year or less than an American refrigerator, which shows how energy-deprived we are.

80% of Kenyans earn a livelihood through Agriculture, levels seen in America in 1820, with only 2% of Americans actively involved in agriculture today. Kenya is among the top tea exporting countries in the world and number 1 in recent years regarding horticultural exports to the EU. However, in Kenya, 46% are highly poor-living, under a dollar a day, and 36.5% are hungry (1 out of every five people in Africa).

In the coming years, inevitably, we will mechanize our farming and move up from 2%, comparable to 45% in India or 70% in Beijing. Still, even then, we will realize we must do lots of irrigation to increase our food production after maxing out the 20% arable lands in Kenya, consequently requiring lots of fossil fuel energy. So we will improve our annual fertilizer application from 20kgs per Ha to Europe's 200 Kgs or China's 390 kgs and produce more food to feed our ever-increasing populations-projected at 2.4B Africans in 2050, a number more significant than the Chinese at 1.7B, and Indians at 1.8B. A-Ha of land produces 2T of maize/corn, comparable to the US’s 11T today.

Over the years, China moved out of poverty by using unprecedented amounts of energy to reduce extreme poverty cases by 94% between 1980 to 2015. That has seen an average Chinese person grow richer, safer, and healthier and live longer, clear from the life expectancy of 80+ years in some parts of China. Globally, an increase in per capita energy use from 0.05GJ to 2.7GJ in 1900 to 10 times that amount equaling 28GJ in 2000 and 34 GJ today, perfectly correlates with the rising life expectancy from 35 years in 1800 to 72 years today.

I am glad to note fossil fuels have changed the world. Not only don’t they help us build up the four pillars of modern civilization(Ammonia, Plastics, Cement and Steel) by providing the energy required, they are directly added during manufacturing. A person who doesn't know the benefits of plastics will decriminalize their use, but Patrick Moore explains how essential they have been. And in most cases, they are unsubstitutable. I am surprised to hear energy experts speak ill of fossil fuels when 82% of the world's energy in 2021 was from fossil fuels. Our global electricity production was 64% fossil fuels, a number expected to rise in 2022. Germany, which has the largest dilute intermittent electricity sources, has used more than $700 billion in recent years, increasing its share from ~10% to 40%. Even then, their average yearly electricity generation is less than 35% from solar and wind. Besides, Germany has the most expensive electricity in Europe; one wonders why! In less than two years, electricity costs in Germany have risen from an average of $50 per KWh to $350, which is a seven-fold increase. The best solar PV in the tropics will generate electricity 25% of the time and 12% in Germany. The cost of batteries makes solar and wind power generation super expensive. Manufacturing industries will be forced to shut down as more than 30% of the total expenditure is on electricity, an initiative that uses 50% of Germany's total electricity.

I wonder how Europe will charge their EVS in 2035; when they have eliminated gas cars from their roads when today they cannot afford to keep their citizens warm in winter or cool during the summer or in case there is another hot air pulse from the Sahara even with the water heaters and fans. China gets 85% of its total energy from fossil fuels and 64% of its electricity from King Coal. In 2022, half of the EVs sold globally will be in China. And we have seen China build more new coal plants than the rest of the world combined! China and N. Asia manufacture 90% of the world’s solar PV. The prosperous EU, UK, and the US do not care if the number 2 solar PV manufacturer in China uses forced labor, threats, sexual abuses, and drug abuse on its workers, or the 40% of the child labor for the Cobalt mining in Congo, as long as they are using renewable energy sources. The net-zero policies hurt humanity, especially in the developing world, where its government is bribed into pushing some of those policies on its citizens. Even in the rich US, only 15% of the 330M can afford an EV.

Fortunately, Kenya has a vast potential for Hydro and Geothermal power-10,000 MW for each, the two clean energy resources that the rest of the world location-favored should embrace instead of solar and wind. Plus, they are reliable electricity sources that can generate the designed carrying load and varying demand. We have 2700 MW of electricity installed, and 94% of our electricity demand is usually met by hydro and geo, ~900MW for each, 300MW for wind, 30MW for solar, and thermal/fossil fuels at ~600MW. The cost of setting up a KW is $2500 for hydro, $3600 for geo, $2800 for wind, and $5000-6000 for nuclear. Note the cost of the dilute intermittents is without electricity backup sources and batteries, which would make solar and wind generation prices exorbitant. 70% of our total energy demand is met by biomass. In the coming years, we will need lots of fossil fuels to beat poverty and hunger, our two main problems other than corruption.

Unfortunately for WEF and the IPCC, tractors and most farm machinery are not near electrification. For lawn mowers, maybe. But we have combined harvesters working 24 hours straight for some days. They require reliable, versatile, affordable, and scalable energy from fossil fuels-sources with a high energy density. And yes, we can quantify what a machine does in terms of how many people would substitute it, but in some cases, we cannot.An example is the number of people required to uproot a tree stump-which is perfectly quantifiable, but what of the number of people needed to fly a lab sample from Kenya to California? Likewise, can one quantify the number of people required to push a vaccine through a vein-a substitute for a needle? I know; it does not make sense at all! But, as Alex notes in my favorite book, Fossil Future, machines amplify and expand our capabilities. For example, machines have reduced the time needed to produce a kg of wheat in the US from 10 mins in 1800 to 2 seconds today.

Jusper plucking tea Vs a small-scale Chinese farmer using a simple machine

Australia has been suffering from blackouts recently. When a few weeks ago, the media was celebrating the destruction of some of their coal power plants. Like in Germany, I have noted, Australia’s electricity prices have gone up 3× this year. Of course, green policies! 45% of total electricity bills go directly to set up new infrastructure(poles and cables). With 10,000 Km of planned renewable electricity transmission by 2035, plus the high costs for S&W backup when Australia is only responsible for only 1.4% of GHG emissions! We have seen the UK buy an MWh of electricity for $10,000 on the 25th of July 25, 2022! That is more than 100 times what an average MWh of electricity sells in Europe and up to 200 times compared to the US’s cost. That is killing a commoner!

One would think Italians, the Dutch, and Canadians were not suffering from the net zero policies until they witnessed the protests. Consumer product inflation is not the main problem but energy costs and, of course, the antihuman net zero policies. Farmers understand without fertilizers from fossil fuels, 1 out of two people alive today would not be fed. That is why we saw a 20% decline in rice production, 30% for tea and up to 50% for rubber in Sri Lanka from their fertilizer ban, and in recent months has led to the collapse of the Sri Lanka economy. Looking at the bigger picture, one learns that 2 out of 2 people are alive today thanks to fossil fuels.

I see the same policies being forced on us when Africa is responsible for only 4% of global greenhouse emissions, despite its population. Last month, Europe was to help Africa build fertilizer plants to boost its food production by producing cheap fertilizer locally. The European panel decided that supplying Africa with fertilizers would clash with their net zero goals. And yet, a few days later, same Europe went on a coal chase spree in Africa, with some of its leaders holding talks with Nigeria, Angola, and some other African countries to supply them with oil to boost their energy demands. How unfair is that? Africa, with a sixth of the world's population, uses less than 4% of the global fertilizers, while Asia uses 60%. An average African applies less than 20kgs/Ha/Year whereas in Europe it is 150kgs, with China leading the way with 390kgs/Ha/Year. I honestly doubt if the policymakers in the developed countries care about the developing world. Our leaders are corrupt, making it hard to find them fighting for us, a small bribe who copy-paste whatever they are told.

Africa’s biggest problem is corruption. In Kenya, for instance, the president has noted that more than $20 million is lost daily! A country is suffering from energy poverty, with over 65% of its population using 'Stone Age' food cooking means(firewood) and 90% of its rural population, with 700+M Africans still using dirty firewood for cooking. A dirty source of energy that is annually responsible for 2.5M deaths worldwide and 750,000 Africans annually. One billion Africans will still lack clean fuel for cooking in 2050, more than 40% of its population-940M people in 2020. And yes, without corruption, we would be far ahead.

As an agricultural engineer, I know one of the easiest ways to fight hunger and increase per capita income is by reducing losses. According to FAO, ⅓ of our global food goes to waste. The Waste and Resources Action Program noted that 75% of the wasted food is perfectly edible in the UK.

Reducing Post-Harvest losses-PHL-means

1. Conserving energy. Minimizing the losses from ⅓ to, let's say, ⅕ means a tenth of the land doesn't have to be tilled. Global freshwater use for agriculture reduces from 70% to below 65%. Fertilizer use, labor, and direct farm inputs are reduced by 10% generally. People with my education will be responsible for designing various technologies to minimize losses, improve already available food processing technologies, and make and weigh the effects of different food and energy-related policies on our people. I recently saw headlines on Kenyan media; IMF pushed our government to double fuel prices from $1.50 to $3 per liter so the government could pay its loan quicker. Looking at it, I felt sorry for the 1 million youths employed in the motorcycle transport industry, contributing $10 million per day to our GDP-expensive fuel prices compared to Australia, a developed country, where fuel sells at $2.50 per liter. I dream of being among the policymakers in the future so that I can fight for my people against anti-human policies. Besides, Africa is rich in minerals and fossil fuels.

2. Feeding the hungry and increasing their earnings from agriculture through improving quality through various food preservation methods. Selling agricultural produce abroad earns a typical farmer five times more than selling their produce in Kenya. Reducing waste means more quality agricultural produce is left to sell, especially our #3 ever-expanding foreign exchange earner, horticulture, with wastes up to 50% despite being an energy-intensive farming activity.

3. 6% of GHGs emissions go down. Today PHL emits thrice what aviation emits annually. And if we were to group it with countries with the most emissions, only China and the US would beat it!

Please read the article here 'Why Post-Harvest Technology?'

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qDgIj5AupRDv3kAtmwznFZeh8pygpPmB/view?usp=drivesdk

PHL is a problem affecting even developed countries. If something happened, and somehow we found ourselves unable to farm, our global food reserves would not last us three months-the time required to grow potatoes, beans, carrots, and rice to maturity! So we need Post-Harvest Technologists to engineer ways to store food to last humanity decades. And so that's why I decided to go to school for my master's degree in Post-Harvest Technology at Writtle University College in the UK. My problem is raising the tuition fees, rent and upkeep all together. Selling our land and livestock would only raise the deposit and a few months' rent-land and livestock that my family depends on to raise and school my siblings.

Some of my Plans include writing articles as soon as I go to school and holding debates on energy and agriculture. And in the future, having discussions on TV on various energy-related policies relating to the developing world. I also would like to be a part of the policymakers in Africa and devise better ways to improve agriculture through farm mechanization, irrigation, and energy-intensive of them all; Post-Harvest processes.