Agri researchers told to conduct intensive studies post harvest losses reduction

The Agricultural Research Institutes in Tanzania has been advised to conduct an intensive research on crops to identify the types which are all weather- tolerant and can last longer so as to reduce the rate of post harvest losses.

 

Crops like maize, beans and paddy are highly affected during rainy season, resulting into post harvest losses up 30 to 40 percentage.

 

Irrigation and Cooperative Officer from Hanang District, Manyara Region, Paul Michael told The Guardian in an exclusive interview in Dar es Salaam at the weekend during the launch of Post-harvest Multi-stakeholders Management Platform organised by the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF). 

 

“When such crops receive a lot of rainwater, the water penetrates into the maize grains and causes the whole maize to decay and hence cannot be used for consumption,” he said.   

 

He added that, when maize crop decays, it produces a poison namely Afflutoxin which affects the health of the consumer. 

 

“The poison affects the growth of children, subjecting them to dwarfism. It also affects the liver when it gets in the body,” he elaborated. 

Therefore, he said, the agricultural research institutes should regularly issue an alert to farmers concerning the weather condition suitable for planting and harvesting. 

 

He added that educating the farmers on favourable weather conditions for harvesting the crop will help to boost local and foreign market.  

Further, he urged for provision of education to farmers on better crop storage methods to mitigate chances of decay from pest infestation. 

 

For his part, Dr Damas Philip, Senior Lecturer Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) said more efforts are needed to help the farmers to understand the better crop preservation and storage techniques.

 

Philip said farmers have limited capital to afford modern storage equipments, reflecting the need for subsidisation to obtain the basic storage facilities.  

“I urge the government to provide subsidies to help farmers purchase modern storage equipment,” he said.

 

Agricultural Non State Actors Forum (ANSAF) is a member-led forum which aims to influence positive policies and practice change using evidence based approach to stimulate growth of the agricultural sector focusing on smallholder farmers.  It also actively promotes accountability, transparency and citizen engagement within the sector. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN