Developing A GIS-Based Approach for Enhancing Revenue Management of Fish Cold-Room Businesses in Oyo East Territory, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Cold-room or Refrigerating Chamber is a post-harvest warehouse in which a specific temperature is artificially generated, maintained and purposely designed for storing products in an environment below the outside temperature. An ideal fish cold-room is a category of cold storage system usually design for frozen fish or kinds of seafood since the spoilage of post-harvest fish due to protein denaturation, fat changes and dehydration are experimentally slowed down by reducing the storage temperature. Fish is one of easily perishable protein foods that need careful handling but most traditional fish farmer in the study area always prefer to sell their fish in bulk at either profitable or unprofitable price during harvest time due to lack of adequate post-harvest fish preservative and processing techniques. Hence, the study aimed at developing GIS based approach for the available post-harvest fish cold-rooms in the study area to ensure effective control and management of revenue from this informal business. The objectives include: to determine the available number of fish storage cold-rooms and identify likely problems associated with cold-rooms storage businesses in the study area, to identify necessary practical measures for solving the so identified problems. Also, the methodology adopted includes database design, data acquisition using GPS and Scanner respectively and as well as creation of spatial and attribute database for the acquired Cold-rooms Storage Facilities using ArcGIS 10.2.2. Various results were generated that pointed in the direction of uneven distribution of the fish storage facilities. It is therefore recommended that it is necessary for various concerned Local Government Authorities to align with “Sustainable Development Goal’s Fourteen (SDGs14th) [1] on Food Security from Life below Water” by encouraging the establishment of adequate Modern Post-Harvest Cold-rooms Storage Facilities within their territory and equally ensure that they are always in good condition for public use.