Farmers to benefit from post-harvest loss management, market linkages and policy support
19 November 2018, Addis Ababa – The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Government of Ethiopia and FAO have agreed on a USD 2,950,136 four-year initiative to support Ethiopia’s food security efforts. The innovative programme will enable poor vulnerable farming households to reduce food losses, establish financial and market linkage options and support policy dialogue on post-harvest management.
FAO estimates that cereal grains post-harvest losses due to spoilage is about 20 percent. These losses take a huge toll on proceeds available to smallholder farmers with poor access to the means of preventing the losses.
A number of ineffective traditional crop harvesting storage technologies are still practiced widely in rural Ethiopia. Studies have shown that traditional crop storage systems cause major crop spoilage and wastage in Ethiopia where food insecurity has remained a challenge.
Post-harvest losses of cereal grains represent a missed opportunity to feed the growing population with potential negative impacts on the sustainability of food systems and food security and nutrition, said Joseph Mpagalile, Agricultural Engineer and Post-harvest expert at the FAO Regional Office for Africa, during the project inception workshop.
Mpagalile added, “Post-harvest losses reduce food availability and income for smallholder farmers, and affect the benefits for those working along the supply chain.”
Cereal grains have continued to be key components of subsistence farming and have constituted a major part of the food systems. However, the existing data on post-harvest management practices show that post-harvest losses have been and will continue to be one of the major problems that have impaired smallholder farmers’ effort to produce enough food.
Speaking at the launch, Abdulsemed Abdo, Advisor to the State Minister for Agricultural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture, said cereal grain market competitiveness is adversely affected by poor post-harvest management practices.
“Our agro-industries are importing cereal grains as our farmers could not supply quality produce. Post-harvest management plays a key role in our effort to realize our vision of realizing food and nutrition security for Ethiopia,” he said. “We will build on what we learned from the first phase of the same project and will put into actions the postharvest strategy we developed, the capacity building and training we received and continue promoting and expanding the technologies we introduced,” he added.
The first phase of the four-year project (2013 – 2017) promoted and strengthened the postharvest management and household storage technologies and practices in 14 high grain producing districts in four regional states. Learning from the first phase, phase 2 will now focus its efforts in up-scaling the rollout of technologies to meet the growing demand.
“Smallholder farmers will benefit from improved grain storage that will be widely promoted in the coming four years,” Mpagalile said.
Sharing his experience from Project Phase I at the launching workshop, Marcos, a farmer from Oromia region said that he used to lose 5-6 quintals of maize every year due to pests. Improved crop storages – metal silos and hermetic bags helped him store his maize safely for up to one year.
This Phase II project partners with government agriculture offices, research institutions, improved grain storage producers, farmers, cooperatives, and microfinance institutions to ensure smooth and quality delivery as well as sustainability.
For more information
Contact
Tamiru Legesse
National Communication Officer
FAO in Ethiopia – Addis Ababa
Tel: (+251) 11 647 8888 ext 198 | Cell: (+251) 91 186 1293
Email: [email protected]
Edward Ogolla
Communication Specialist Advisor
FAO Subregional Office for Eastern Africa - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: (+251) 11 647 8888 ext 116 | Cell: (+251) 94 079 0288
Email: [email protected]