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<\/a><\/p>\nA comprehensive post-harvest strategy should look beyond maize grain and embrace the whole basket of commodities that have to be preserved, especially against rainfall-related damages. Unfortunately, as soon as the rainy season begins, African policy makers and inputs providers tend to be pre-occupied with moving inputs to farmers without commensurate attention to preserving what has already been produced.\u00a0 With little attention paid to market infrastructure, rainfall also damages food in informal markets.<\/p>\n
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Why most smallholder farmers do not invest in storage facilities<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Low volumes of commodities produced by individual smallholder farmers make it less cost effective for them to invest in storage or incur costs in taking the few commodities to the market. As a result, the majority of smallholder farmers keep their food and harvests in their kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms. Commodities kept that way may not be ideal for the market. There is also a limit to the quantity of commodities a farmer can store in the house. Unavailability of appropriate or sufficient storage facilities also limits production levels as available storage influences production decisions. Even where conditions are suitable for doubling productivity, farmers hesitate to increase production because their storage capacity cannot be equally doubled.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Opportunities for collective storage<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Containerization of agricultural commodities at community level is one innovation that eMKambo<\/em> has started exploring together with new partners. Through this innovation, solar powered containers will be set up in production zones.\u00a0 This will help farmers to collectively aggregate their commodities, providing a sense of the collective volume of commodities from one area.\u00a0 Containerization will also help farmers to hold onto their commodities and sell profitably rather than be pushed to get rid of commodities due to lack of storage and preservation capacity.\u00a0 Below are some of the commodities to be preserved in containers:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Onions <\/em><\/strong>\u2013 Apart from drying, storage is one of the main challenges facing onion farmers, leading inconsistent market supply in countries like Zimbabwe.\u00a0 Drying and storing in containers will address problems like loss of quality and reduced shelf life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Squash butternuts<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 In food markets across Zimbabwe, during gluts, butternuts can sell for 22c\/kg and the price can go up to 72c\/kg during periods of scarcity.\u00a0 This variation is not good for the consumer and the market although it may be good for a few farmers who may have butternuts during scarcity periods.\u00a0 Containerization and warehousing will solve some of these supply and demand mismatches.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n High value commodities (red, yellow & green peppers)<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 These commodities cannot be produced in winter.\u00a0 During off-season their price can be as high as $2\/kg.\u00a0 Containerization and storage will ensure an even flow of these commodities into the market, avoiding wild price variability.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fruits (apples, oranges and peaches)<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 These tend to run out completely and can be stored when in season for release when out of season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dry crops (groundnuts, sugar beans, etc.,)<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 These can also be stored for release as and when the market is ready to pay a better price.\u00a0 Prices of sugar beans also tend to go up towards the rainy season as most people purchase for seed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sweet potatoes<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 These can also be stored in containers. Given that most farmers store this crop in the field, storage facilities can quickly release land for other uses or for preparation processes so that the next crop is planted on time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Small grains<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 These can also be stored for both human and livestock consumption. An increase in the production of indigenous chickens has started driving the demand for small grains in Zimbabwe. This is likely to stimulate small grains production.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A critical look at preservation and storage will give agriculture a complete picture.\u00a0 It is should not be just about addressing insects and rushing commodities to the market.\u00a0 Investment in post-harvest and market infrastructure will help all value chain actors such as producers and consumers.\u00a0 In most cases, commodities are produced when the market is not ready.\u00a0 Besides protecting agricultural commodities from rainfall, containerization is a critical stage in enabling market readiness.<\/p>\n Charles@knowledgetransafrica.com<\/a>\u00a0 \/ charles@emkambo.co.zw<\/a> \/ info@knowledgetransafrica.com<\/a><\/p>\n Website: www.emkambo.co.zw<\/a> \/ www.knowledgetransafrica.com<\/a><\/p>\n eMkambo Call Centre: 0771 859000-5\/ 0716 331140-5 \/ 0739 866 343-6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While rainfall can easily be associated with high agricultural production, in many African countries abundant rains also come with enormous damage to food that has already been produced. At least 30% of food in Africa is said to be lost before it is consumed. Too much rainfall accounts for a significant proportion of such post-harvest Read more about Rainy seasons show how developing countries struggle with preserving food<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":1142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,29,21,31],"tags":[70,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160,"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions\/1160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emkambo.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}