O secador solar de milho é uma estrutura, semelhante a uma estufa, que permite secar o milho recorrendo à energia solar. Em funcionamento, a secagem demora três dias para reduzir o teor de humidade do milho de 24 para 14%. A secagem do milho reduz o risco de desenvolvimento de...

Dry-season vegetable farmers in Ghana face increased dependency on chemical fertilizer and supplementary water inputs due to decreased soil productivity caused by prolonged cultivation that has mined the soil's previously high organic matter content. Farmers also complain of increased incidence of pests and diseases. These factors increase capital and labour...

Cette fiche technique présente différentes méthodes pour l'extraction du miel et de la cire d'abeille. Les méthodes traditionnelles sont revues de manière critique et contrastées avec d'autres méthodes facilement applicables et/ou des instruments comme le cérificateur solaire, la méthode du bain chaud (bain marie) et la méthode Ocloo (nommée après...

Planning and policy-making for the development of the post-harvest fisheries sector has been hampered by the lack of practical tools to understand post-harvest fish losses. The Questionnaire Loss Assessment Method (QLAM) is based on a formal questionnaire survey approach to post-harvest loss assessment. Enumerators interview a population sample using a...

Load Tracking is one of a suite of loss assessment tools, including the Informal Fish Loss Assessment Method (IFLAM) and the Questionnaire Loss Assessment Method (QLAM). Prior to the research which informed their development, with the exception of work by FAO and NRI, little effort had been made to develop...

Parboiled rice is rice that has been boiled in the husk. Parboiling makes rice easier to process by hand, improves the nutritional value of white rice, and changes its texture. Today, it is the preferred rice of many in the southern parts of the Indian subcontinent, and elsewhere. The quality...

Market liberalisation in Africa has resulted in more commodities being stored in small quantities in on-farm facilities. This has resulted in increased post-harvest losses, especially by storage pest insects of grain and legumes. The use of synthetic pesticides in food stores at the farm level can be considered costly by...

Cowpea is important to rural households in Ghana for its nutritional value and to supplement income. Poorer producers typically have to sell grain legumes soon after harvest, either to meet debts or because they cannot prevent storage losses (weight losses and value reduction) associated with insect damage. Market sellers are...

An FAO training has been a turning point in Rita’s shea business. Now she is an advocate and employer of other rural women, promoting sustainable livelihoods that can offset deforestation in her region. 

The commercialisation of traditional processed products from cassava, such as fufu, potentially offers new opportunities for income generation to rural households in Nigeria, Ghana and other parts of West Africa. Several options exist for the commercialisation of fufu, including the production of a shelf-stable product? This minimises the use of...

In the northern Republic of Ghana, a manually operated press for shea butter extraction is successful and popular among rural women. Shea butter production is an important income earning activity for women in rural areas and for many, it is their only source of income. Shea butter is used for...

With their ability to mobilise 1.5 billion smallholder producers, forest and farm producer organisations (FFPOs) can help drive a paradigm shift away from large-scale monocultural systems, which are vulnerable to climate change and highly inequitable. FFPO businesses embody greater diversity and equity, pursuing market opportunities for a diverse basket of...

This ETFRN News edition brings together 24 articles and interviews from around the world that reflect on the following questions: How do such actions and their impacts differ between different smallholder types and organizations? How do they differ between countries, regions and corporate contexts? What are the effects of various...

aWhere delivers agricultural intelligence to farmers, farm managers, crop consultants and researchers all over the world. The company aims at making agronomic and weather data available to farmers through intermediaries such as research centers, governments, information companies, mobile network operators and non profit organizations which can integrate the data into...

Africa south of the Sahara experienced an acceleration of economic growth in recent years that was accompanied by structural changes in national economies. Some African countries, such as Ghana, managed to utilize rapid growth for poverty reduction and improving food and nutrition security. Transformation of agriculture appears to have played...

This Country gender profile of the agricultural and rural sectors in Ghana analyses gender-related disparities in access to: credit and financial services; technologies and innovations; extension and information services; ownership and control of land and farm enterprises; the effect of climate change on farming activities; and social protection to strengthen the...

Given the global relevance of Integrated Food-Energy Systems (IFES), FAO has developed the IFES Analytical Framework; which gives guidance on how to select and assess indicators of IFES sustainability. The Analytical Framework (AF) includes a set of criteria, indicators and measures to help screen IFES projects. The first part of...

The Smallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait of the ESA Small Family Farms Team is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers, bringing out the characteristics of family farms across the world. It is designed in such a way that differences between countries and regions can be...

More than twenty years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations contributed to the growing recognition of the role of pollination in agricultural production, with the publication of “The Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics”. Since that time, the appreciation of pollinators has grown, alongside the...

More than twenty years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations contributed to the growing recognition of the role of pollination in agricultural production, with the publication of “The Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics”. Since that time, the appreciation of pollinators has grown, alongside the...