By: Joyce Kantam Kolamong
In a bid to enhance food security and reduce post-harvest losses in Northern Ghana, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with the District Agricultural Departments, has initiated a training program for Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) on post-harvest management.
The training, which is part of the EU Food Security Response project, aims to equip AEAs with the necessary knowledge and skills to reduce food losses and improve food quality.
The project, which focuses on maize, soybean, and sorghum value chains, seeks to strengthen the capacities of 12,600 smallholder farmers and other value chain actors in six districts in Northern Ghana.
According to Dr. Issah Sugri, Principal Research Scientist at CSIR, the training is designed to equip AEAs with enriched knowledge and skills in post-harvest management practices to reduce food loss.
The Importance of Post-Harvest Management
Principal Research Scientist at CSIR, Dr. Issah Sugri, who facilitated the training, emphasized the critical role of post-harvest management in reducing food losses and improving food quality. “Immediately after harvest, the produce becomes either food or money,” he noted. “If you have post-harvest losses, you are missing out on two things. You are either losing money or losing food.” He added that farmers have already invested economic resources, such as energy, money, and fertilizer, in producing the food, and therefore, it is essential to minimize waste and reduce post-harvest losses.
Post-Harvest Techniques for Farmers
The training highlighted several post-harvest techniques that farmers can adopt to reduce losses, including timely harvesting, drying crops to safe moisture content, winnowing, and storing crops in appropriate facilities. Dr. Sugri noted that the choice of storage technology depends on the type of crop and the farmer’s resources. “You need to select the appropriate storage technology,” he advised. “Do you want to use the PICS bag or metal silos or any other appropriate storage method?”
Post-Harvest Losses in Northern Ghana
According to Dr. Sugri, post-harvest losses vary according to crop and commodity. “We lose close to 5 to 15 percent of dry cereals, while perishable crops such as fruits and vegetables and root and tuber crops can lose up to 10 to 40 percent due to several challenges,” he revealed. These challenges include lack of processing machines, transport facilities, and other associated problems.
Step-Down Training
The trained AEAs are expected to cascade the training to farmers and other value chain actors in their respective operational areas. This will enable farmers to adopt good storage practices and improve the quality of their produce after harvest. District Director of Agric, Kasena Nankana, Muhammad Bukari, expressed his enthusiasm for the training, saying, “We intend to go and step down the training to all the project communities and the project beneficiaries. They need this to help them take care of the harvest, be able to store well, and protect what they have stored from insects infestation and rodent infestation.”
Reducing Aflatoxin Infestation
Aflatoxin infestation is a significant problem in Northern Ghana, and the training emphasized the importance of reducing it.
“We know the health implications of this aflatoxin and we hope that this training is actually going to help us to reduce the aflatoxin infestation and to have healthy food for our communities and for the market,” Mr. Bukari said.
Head of Department of Agric, in the Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri, district, Akonyani Baako Peter, noted that the training will help build the capacity of technical officers to reduce post-harvest losses and improve food quality. “We also have bad roads, we do not have quality seeds for sowing, price volatility is a problem coupled with this post harvest losses which is a big challenge”, he explained.
The training is a crucial step towards enhancing food security and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. By equipping AEAs with the necessary knowledge and skills, the project aims to reduce post-harvest losses and improve food quality, ultimately contributing to the sustainable development of the region.
Post-Harvest Equipment to Boost Food Security
As part of the FAO/EU Food Security Response in Northern Ghana project, 70 grain shellers, 15,300 PIC bags, 70 multipurpose threshers, and 72 grain moisture testers have been delivered to farmers across 72 communities in six districts of Northern Ghana. The beneficiary districts include North Gonja, Central Gonja, and North East Gonja in the Savannah Region, Bongo and Kasena Nankana in the Upper East Region, and Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri in the North East Region. The intervention is designed to help farmers save time, reduce post-harvest losses, improve hygiene, and increase income from their produce ahead of the coming harvest season.
