Post-harvest losses: Threat to food security

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
MAIZE is Zambia’s main staple food and yet every year, the post-harvest losses from the commodity are heart-breaking.
For Kutemba Liswaniso, 56, of Chief Musokotwane’s area in Kazungula district, a post-harvest loss on any of the food she produces is unacceptable but it happens as she watches helplessly.
She stands to admire the bags of maize she has harvested from the 2015/2016 farming season but one thing still concerns her; post-harvest losses.
“Each year, I watch my maize being wasted at the FRA depot awaiting transportation to big cities like Lusaka. The maize will be exposed to heat and wind and once these polythene bags that we use get exposed to such weather, the bags will tear off,” she says.
And for fear of losing her grain, she has opted to sell her maize to middle men, though at a loss.
“For now, the only option for rural farmers in this area is to sell our produce like maize and beans to middle men. We know it is a loss but we have no choice. The need for better and advanced storage silos is urgently here. Most of the maize and other farm produce go to waste because we do not have storage facilities and good roads,” she said.
Mrs Liswaniso is not the only one. In many rural areas in Zambia, much of the food grown never makes it past the farm gate, a situation that contributes to food insecurity.
The need to increase food production has become a policy mantra. Populations are growing, and the need for more food is becoming vital.
But much of what is produced never makes it past the farm gate, especially among the smallholder farmers in Zambia.
Another resident of the same area, Edwin Siandele, attributes the post-harvest losses to lack of technology advancement in addressing the many challenges that rural farmers face.
“Eliminating these losses will be one sure way to increase food security without requiring additional resources or placing additional burdens on the environment. But if such a trend continues, we are left with no choice but to continue selling to the middlemen at our loss, of course,” he said.
Mr Siandele says the farmers’ loss of their produce leads to a reduction in potential income, poor access to nutritious food and increased food insecurity in the region.
He says while it is a good idea for Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to purchase maize from farmers, a lot needs to be done to ensure that the maize is collected on time before the next rainy season.
“We have no problem selling maize to FRA but the problem is collection of the said maize to its final destination. The fear of post-harvest losses often compels farmers to sell their produce directly at harvest, rather than waiting for a time when prices are more favourable,” he said.
Losses typically result from poor infrastructure, particularly local access roads to farms or market; lack or poor storage facilities; poor market information; market failures and inefficiencies; lack of processing equipment; and theft and destruction caused by pests and rodents.
In Zambia, smallholder farmers contribute about 80 percent of food production, but over 30 percent of the food produced by these farmers is lost because of post-harvest loss.
According to recent Food and Agriculture (FAO) statistics, reducing food wastage and losses is one of many steps necessary to ensure food security for a rapidly growing, and urbanising global population.
FAO says post-harvest losses in Zambia and Africa can be reduced if storage technologies are introduced in the farming community to help small-scale farmers.
Every year, Zambia loses thousands of bags of maize through crop wastage resulting from poor storage and lack of good facilities and delayed collection of maize from the depots.
This costs the country billions of dollars in losses and it is a drain on the country’s resources, which it badly needs to boost food security and enhance export earnings from maize.
But three years ago, Government embarked on the construction of grain storage shades in some parts of the country aimed at mitigating grain losses.
To also address the challenge, Government has embarked on a project to construct grain silos system in the country in order to create a food reserve that can provide enough storage for grain and other farm produce.
Once this is done, it will enhance food security and wealth creation, which will lead to lower levels of poverty among farmers and eventually at national level.
The agriculture sector faces a number of challenges that imped growth and inadequate storage facilities.
Although Zambia has continued to record surplus harvests over the last few years, storage challenges in the agriculture sector must be addressed urgently if the country is to keep up the status and possibly be the food basket in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
There is need to avoid crop wastage because crop production takes a toll on the environment and resources for crop production.
It is therefore imperative that farmers prepare for storage of their maize in a safer manner to avoid losses and there is no better time to start preparing than now when the next farming season is about to begin. ALSO PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON SEPTEMBER 25, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=80507

Unlocking Zambia’s agriculture potential through rural enterprise growth

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
ACCORDING to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), four out of five people in Africa depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
However, it remains the only region in the developing world to have low and declining agricultural development, with a per capita output totalling 56 percent of the world average.
In addition, Africa’s per capita agricultural output has declined by five percent over the last twenty years while other developing nations have seen a 40 percent increase.
However, given that the region is home to about 60 percent of the world’s arable land, the expansion of new markets and sustainable technologies proposed by the ECA can help alleviate poverty in Africa and reduce income inequality.
Many of those who depend on agriculture to survive live in rural areas with little access to research and technology. This means that outside investment is often necessary for a country like Zambia to maintain sustainable farming rituals.
With more than 80 percent of Zambia’s population depending on agriculture for their livelihoods, agriculture is central to Zambia’s economic development.
For this, President Lungu announced his decision to diversify the nation’s economy by focusing on unlocking the agriculture potential of the nation, while reducing its dependence on copper mining.
President Lungu expressed this after being sworn in for a new five-year term on Tuesday last week.
“We must promote agriculture to become one of the main drivers of our diversification programme,” he said.
Although Zambia’s economy has been hard hit by depressed copper prices, diversifying into agriculture still presents a number of difficulties.
Reports say the agriculture sector is one that still needs a lot of development.
This is owing to the fact that it is focused on staple maize and is mostly produced by subsistence farmers who lack the capital and technology to improve their yields.
The subsistence farmers can also be classified as small and medium enterprises who make up about 50 percent of Zambia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
There are currently a good number of entrepreneurs in Zambia, running small, medium or micro enterprises responsible for generating up to 30 percent of total employment.
Therefore, investing in SMEs is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and increase incomes.
But why has the investment in SMEs taken a while besides them (SMEs) being paramount in agriculture transformation?
Despite the huge potential for growth in this sector, most of the businesses have remained largely informal thereby limiting the sector’s contribution to the growth of the economy.
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) NonState Actors Coalition (CNC) deputy chairperson Cris Muyunda says SMEs face many and varied challenges to their growth and operations.
Dr Muyunda says most enterprises are struggling to survive due to lack of financing.
“SMEs represent a ‘missing middle part in agriculture transformation’ not only in Zambian but in African private sectors as these are dominated on the one hand, by (mostly informal) micro enterprises, and by large companies on the other.
Dr Muyunda says other barriers that hold SMEs from growing are the lack of appropriate skills, knowledge, technology and the limited access to markets.
Addressing these constraints is crucial to moving towards sustainable employment, innovation and increase incomes and exports in Zambia and Africa as a whole.
Improved value chain is another prerequisite to the growth of SMEs and this will also create jobs and thereby grow the economy too.
To create economic growth, Zambia’s agricultural productivity needs to improve from start to finish.
Recently, Zambia CAADP Focal Point at the Ministry of Agriculture Justin Chuunka said, “We need to look at the whole value chain and create market linkages. From inputs into the production through harvest, storage, marketing, processing and retailing. It involves all steps from farmer to consumer. A more inclusive value chain benefits all players.”
Mr Chuunka said elevating SMEs to the centre of industrial development and economic growth requires financial and human resources (training) to achieve their goals.
“It is important that we encourage SMEs to expand and to evolve, innovate, to hire employees and inspire others to do the same. The benefits for Zambian economy would be enormous,” Mr Chuunka said.
To grow and support SMEs in Zambia and Africa as a whole is the pathway if hunger and poverty are to be reduced.
The future of the African continent is about growing rural enterprises that will support smallholder farmers and employment creation.
Despite their high contribution to economic growth and job creation, SME’s face significant constraints with respect to access to agricultural technology, information, financing and markets.
The smallholder farming sub-sector is constrained by inadequate private sector development, by general market failure and a farming community whose knowledge, skills, and assets base are limited which are a result of lack of adequate training and education.
To close this gap, the need for transferring knowledge, building technical skills and providing management support solutions via mentoring, coaching and training to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) cannot be overemphasized.
The problem of poverty and how to reduce it remains the most pressing dilemma in the international development debate.
But the good news is that the agriculture sector has the capacity to lead the poverty transformation if only SMEs can be empowered. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON SEPTEMBER 18, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=79762