Identification of Appropriate Postharvest Technologies for Improving Market Access and Incomes ...

323 Pages·2010·11.05 MB·English

World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198

WFLO Grant Final Report

Identification of Appropriate Postharvest Technologies for Improving Market
Access and Incomes for Small Horticultural Farmers in
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Dr. Lisa Kitinoja
Project Director
Senior Technical Advisor – Horticulture and Food Security
World Food Logistics Organization
March 31, 2010
World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198
World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198
Grant Information (Grant Number 52198)

A. Organization

Organization Name: World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO)
U.S. Tax Status (Refer to Tax Status Definitions)1: Exempt under 501(c)(3)

Institutional Official authorized to submit and accept grants on behalf of organization:
Prefix Corey Surname Rosenbusch
Title Vice President Telephone [phone]
World Food Logistics Organization Fax [phone]
Address 1500 King Street

Alexandria, VA 22314
E-mail [email protected]
Web site www.wflo.org

B. Project
Identification of Appropriate Postharvest Technologies for Improving Market
Project Name: Access and Incomes for Small Horticultural Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia

Co-Principal Investigator/Project Director:
Prefix Dr. Lisa Surname Kitinoja
Title Senior Technical Advisor Telephone [phone]
World Food Logistics Fax
Address Organization
1500 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
E-mail [email protected] or [email protected]
Web site www.postharvest.org

Co-Principal Investigator:
Prefix Dr. Marita Surname Cantwell
Title Extension Specialist Telephone [phone]
UC Postharvest Research and Fax
Address Information Center (UC PTRIC)

University of California, Davis
E-mail [email protected]
Web site postharvest.ucdavis.edu

Amount Received From Foundation $ 1.28 million Project Duration: 12 mo.

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World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198
Final Report – Summary Information

Charitable Purpose:

To reduce food losses, improve market access and increase incomes of small farmers
of horticultural crops in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, both effectively and
sustainably, by identifying and promoting the development and adoption of cost-
effective appropriate postharvest technologies.

Project Description.

Postharvest and marketing professionals from two major USA institutions (the University
of California and World Food Logistics Organization) were linked with West African and
Indian institutions, assessed the levels and types of postharvest losses for fruits and
vegetable crops, then designed and tested interventions that can best reduce losses
and improve incomes for small farmers.

We evaluated twelve past horticultural projects and worked with our partners to perform
postharvest loss assessment studies and commodity systems assessments in Africa
and India on 14 fruit and vegetable value chains. Graduate students as well as young
professionals joined us in the loss assessments and fieldwork in order to "learn by
doing".

We identified a variety of ways to reduce food losses and increase incomes of small
farmers cost effectively and sustainably and used these findings to provide current and
accurate information for those who want to develop full scale plans for longer term
projects that will promote viable interventions for the development and adoption of
appropriate postharvest technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

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World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198
Table of Contents

Grant Information (Grant Number 52198) ................................................................................... 1
Final Report – Summary Information ............................................................................... 2
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 5
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 7
Grant Final Report Narrative ........................................................................................... 8
I. PART 1: Identification of the Problems ......................................................................... 8
1. Background and Rationale ..................................................................................................... 8
2. Project Goal and Objectives ..................................................................................................12
3. Project Design and Implementation .......................................................................................14
i. Activity 1: Literature Review and Past Project Evaluations .....................................................19
ii. Results of Literature Review ..................................................................................................20
iii. Past Project Assessments ....................................................................................................31
iv. Activity 2: Postharvest loss Assessment Workshops ............................................................74
II. PART 2: Post Harvest Loss Assessments ................................................................ 81
i. Activity 3: Postharvest Loss and Quality Assessments (PHLQA) ...........................................81
ii. Results of Activity 3: Postharvest Losses and Quality Assessments ......................................91
iv. Results of Commodity Systems Assessment ...................................................................... 132
III. PART 3: Identification of Appropriate Technologies ............................................... 204
i. Activity 4: Assessment of potential postharvest interventions ............................................... 204
ii. Results of Activity 4: Field Trials ..........................................................................................2 16
iii. Cost/Benefit Analyses .........................................................................................................2 31
iv. Business Plan Development ...............................................................................................2 91
IV. PART 4: Conclusions and Recommendations ...................................................... 294
i. Activity 5: Reporting ............................................................................................................2 94
ii. Oral and written reports of planning project results ..............................................................2 94
iii. Proposals for Future Large Scale Postharvest Horticultural Development Projects ............. 295
iv. Addressing Potential Risks ................................................................................................. 304
v. Monitoring and Evaluation Plans .........................................................................................3 04
vi. Future Partners: Technical Capabilities and Local Linkages ............................................... 305
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Appendix A – Objectives and Outcomes (Proposed versus Accomplished) ............................ 307
Appendix B - Timeline and Milestones ....................................................................................3 10
Appendix C. Past Project Assessment Interviews (Activity 1): On CD .................................... 311
Appendix D. Postharvest Loss and Quality Measurements (Activity 3): On CD ....................... 311
Appendix E. CSA Reports (Activity 3): On CD .........................................................................3 11
Appendix F. Research Extension Advocacy Needs (Activity 3): On CD .................................. 311
Appendix G. Field trials (Activity 4): On CD .............................................................................3 11
Appendix H. Future partners, capabilities and local linkages: On CD ...................................... 312
Appendix I. Annotated Bibliographies: On CD .........................................................................3 12
Appendix J. Citations ..............................................................................................................3 12
General References ................................................................................................................3 16

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World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198
Executive Summary

Staple foods such as grains and root crops form the basis of most Sub-Saharan African
and South Asian diets, while horticultural crops are an important source of plant
nutrients, vitamins and minerals that are essential for human health and well being,
particularly for children and pregnant and nursing women. Field observations have
reported that 40 to 50% of horticultural crops (which include root and tuber crops, fruits
and vegetables) produced are lost before they can be consumed, mainly due to high
rates of bruising, water loss and subsequent decay during postharvest handling
(Kitinoja, 2002, Ray and Ravi, 2005). Reducing postharvest losses for fresh produce
has been demonstrated to be an important part of sustainable agricultural development
efforts meant to increase food availability (Kader 2005), but during the past thirty years
less than 5% of the funding provided for horticultural development efforts has gone
toward postharvest areas of concern, while more than 95% has gone toward trying to
increase production (Kader and Rolle, 2004).

The goal of this planning project is to plan collaboratively a full scale project proposal
based upon the empirical data, field assessments and cost/benefit analyses that will
provide the basis for the identification of appropriate postharvest interventions for key
horticultural crops.

Four sites were selected for this project from among the list of BMGF priority countries
of SSA and states of India. Three sites, Rwanda, Ghana and Benin are in Africa,
represent diverse regions within Sub-Saharan Africa, covering a wide range of
horticultural crops, sub-climates and production methods. An additional site was
selected in India as a representative of South Asia. All of these sites represent areas of
the world where the majority of the population is employed in the agricultural sector,
women are involved in the production, processing and marketing of a variety of
horticultural crops and rural incomes are reported to be very low.

The project was managed by two lead organizations in the United States, the World
Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), and the University of California, Davis
Postharvest Technology Research and Information Center (UC PTRIC), working with
partner organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. WFLO is a non-profit
education, research and technical assistance organization dedicated to the proper
handling and storage of perishable products and the development of systems and best
practices for improving the storage and handling of perishable commodities. The
Postharvest Technology Research & Information Center comprises a multi-disciplinary,
multi-departmental team of university researchers and extension specialists who serve
a common mission of reducing postharvest losses and improving the quality, safety and
marketability of fresh horticultural products.

This planning project has resulted in the identification of a set of postharvest
technologies that will be cost effective and appropriate for reducing losses and keeping
perishable foods fresh longer in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Our
recommendations focus on simple interventions that will maintain volume or enhance
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World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198
market value such as providing shade, better packages, and field packing, a few
inexpensive storage options (zero energy evaporative cool chambers for vegetables,
small scale cold rooms for onions and high value crops) and village level processing
methods (improved drying and canning/bottling).

Literature reviews, past project assessments and field work on measuring current levels
of postharvest losses for 14 key horticultural crops were conducted during 2009.
Twelve projects which involved postharvest horticulture in 5 countries (Egypt, Ghana,
Kenya, India and Indonesia) were revisited and the lessons learned for each are
described.

Postharvest loss and quality assessments and Commodity Systems Assessments
(CSA) of the local value chains for 31 horticultural crops were carried out by our trained,
local teams in Rwanda (4), Ghana (6), Benin (7) and India (14). Key research needs,
extension needs and advocacy issues are identified for each crop. The average
postharvest rates of damage for tomatoes were 15 to 20%, (measured via sampling
across all 4 countries at the farm, wholesale and retail level) with sorting losses of 12%
on the farm, 19.5% at wholesale and 21% at the retail markets. Physical losses were
mainly due to rough handling, the effects of high ambient temperatures and poor quality
packages. Postharvest losses for crops handled in poor quality packages were much
higher in general, with average rates of damage measured for large sacks of cabbage in
Ghana at 32 to 53% and for cloth bundles of leafy crops in Benin at 34 to 89%.

Postharvest loss assessments and CSA analyses resulted in the identification of more
than 50 potential postharvest interventions that our assessment teams felt could
address the problems and issues found in the various value chains and help to reduce
losses and/or add value.

Field trials on 19 of these postharvest technologies resulted in the identification of eight
categories of specific interventions that were found to reduce losses, maintain quality
and/or increase market value while being easy to use on a trial basis, low cost and
readily available or easy to construct using local materials. These technologies were
submitted to cost/benefit analyses and 81% met our criteria of being able to increase
incomes for smallholder famers and direct marketers by 30% or more.

Utilization of any of the recommended postharvest interventions requires training on
specific appropriate postharvest technologies and on the management of those
technologies, connected with business skill development, access to marketing
information and credit, linkages with buyers, and supported by training of trainers to
build local capacity.

Our general recommendation for any future projects is to promote an integrated
postharvest management system, where the smallholder horticultural farmers are
trained by locally based Master Postharvest Trainers to begin by improving quality and
reducing losses on the farm by using maturity indices, gentle handling, pre-sorting,
protective packages, and shade. Business development practices and decision making
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World Food Logistics Organization
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skills should be promoted to assist smallholders to make decisions regarding the
utilization, when appropriate and cost effective, of some form of cooling, storage or
processing in order to further enhance the shelf life and market value of their
horticultural crops.

Acknowledgements

We at WFLO are grateful for the contributions of all our many partners and consultants.
As Project Director, I want to take this opportunity to thank the following individuals for
their special efforts in helping us to make this postharvest planning project a success.

Dr. Sunil Saran – for his leadership, and for always going above and beyond
Dr. Susanta K. Roy – for serving as a mentor to so many and as my personal
postharvest hero
Dr. Awad M. Hussein – whose skills as an extension man are beyond compare
Dr. Adel Kader – for his role in helping to define the field of Postharvest Biology and
Technology during the 1970s and 1980s, and creating the career path many of us are
now following.

We also thank all our hundreds of interviewees, and the following individuals for leading
the CSA assessments and reporting efforts as well as the many field trials mounted in
Ghana (Hussein AlHassan, John Addo Kwaku, BK Maalekuu), Rwanda (Christine
Mukantwali, Stanley Masimbe), Benin (Kerstin Hell, Guy Kodjogbe), Cape Verde
(Lizanne Wheeler, Patrick Brown) and India (SK Roy and Sunil Saran). For reviewing
the various drafts of this final report and providing their feedback, suggestions and
insights we thank Drs. Marita Cantwell, Jim Thompson, Adel Kader, Sunil Saran, SK
Roy, Hala Chahine and David Levine. And finally, we thank those who provided us with
uncompensated assistance, sharing their time, funds and ideas in order to assist us to
better accomplish the goals of our planning project: Katinka Weinberger, Jun Acedo and
Christophe Kouame of WorldVeg, Deo Datt Singh of ACDI/VOCA, G.S. Singh and BVC
Mahajan of Punjab Agricultural University in India and all those who participated in our
November 2009 planning workshop at UC Davis.
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World Food Logistics Organization
Grant Number 52198
Grant Final Report Narrative

I. PART 1: Identification of the Problems

1. Background and Rationale

Staple foods such as grains and root crops form the basis of most Sub-Saharan African
and South Asian diets, while horticultural crops are an important source of plant
nutrients, vitamins and minerals that are essential for human health and well being,
particularly for children and pregnant or nursing women. Field observations over the
past 40 years have reported that 40 to 50% of horticultural crops (which include root
and tuber crops, fruits and vegetables) produced are lost before they can be consumed,
mainly due to high rates of bruising, water loss and subsequent decay during
postharvest handling (Kitinoja, 2002, Ray and Ravi, 2005). Losses can also show up as
decreased nutritional quality (loss of vitamins, development of health dangers such as
myco-toxins) or decreased market value. The magnitude of these losses and their
impact on farm income varies greatly from place to place and has often been difficult to
calculate since the postharvest handling chain includes all the steps between harvesting
and consumption, including sorting, cleaning, packing, cooling, storage, transport and
processing. Reducing postharvest losses for fresh produce has been demonstrated to
be an important part of sustainable agricultural development efforts meant to increase
food availability (Kader 2005), but during the past thirty years less than 5% of the
funding provided for horticultural development efforts has gone toward postharvest
areas of concern, while more than 95% has gone toward trying to increase production
(Kader and Rolle, 2004).

Horticultural producers in developing countries are mostly small farmers, and they are
rarely organized into a formal cooperative or association. It is estimated that 10 to 20%
of all farmers are producers of horticultural crops, sometimes in combination or rotation
with field crops, and that horticultural cropping accounts for approximately 7% of the
land in SSA and 6% in South Asia was allocated to agriculture in the year 2000
(AVRDC 2005; FAOStats 2004). The vast majority of horticultural crops producers
and marketers in Sub-Saharan Africa and many horticultural producers in South Asia
are women. Since the 1970s the academic community has been studying and
documenting evidence of the neglected role of women in agricultural development
(United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 1972; AFRACA, 1983; Mungate,
1983; Kamp, 1984; Kumar, 1987; Saito & Weidemann, 1990).

Although they provide 60 to 90% of the farm work (Quisumbing et al.1995), as women
they usually lack technical knowledge, and often have poor access to current
information, markets and credit, which all contribute to these observed losses. Fruits
and vegetable crops, especially low value or subsistence food crops such as cassava,
yams or sweet potatoes, are typically considered "women's crops" while men tend to be
more involved in the production of cash crops such as cotton, grains or palm oil. The
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