Small scale farmers in Northern Uganda seated next to one of the few granary in their homestead. By Arnest Tumwesige
By Marko Taibot and Arnest Tumwesige
Adjumani: Farmers in Madi sub-region have been asked to resume the use of granaries to prevent huge pre and post-harvest losses of crop produce.
Granaries are storehouses have been widely used by small-scale farmers since the precolonial days.
They are made of peeled bamboo stems, creeps, or sticks of approximately 1cm in broadness. The material is weaved cylindrically with gaps in between, to provide ventilation for the foodstuff to prevent rotting due to accumulation of moisture.
The tube-shaped structure is then placed on wooden poles or rocks to keep it off the ground to guard the stored food against floods, or rats, while the top is covered with grass to protect the interior from rain and extreme sunshine. The traditional food stores are cheap because materials are sourced locally, besides, they help to keep produce for a long time to beat effects of long dry spells.
Decades ago, granaries were used to preserve all produce such as beans, pigeon peas, maize, sorghum, and millet against harsh temperatures and vermin in most families in the Western, Eastern, and Northern parts of the country. The presence of a granary was a sign of food security in a home.
But with modernity, farmers started storing their produce in houses, sacks, and tanks.
Now, leaders in Madi sub-region are advising farmers to resume the use of granaries to prevent the high percentage of post-harvest losses due to poor storage and harsh temperatures.
James Vuciri Logwenya, the Agriculture officer for Dzaipi sub-county in Adjumani district, revealed that at least 40% of the food in the Madi sub-region is wasted due to poor post-harvest handling, processing, and storage.
Vuciri noted said a baseline survey conducted in the 2017/2018 financial year by the Adjumani district local government, indicated that 40% of produce is lost before harvest, during and after harvest, storage, food preparation in the kitchen, and during consumption on the dining table.
“Farmers lose up to 30% due to poor post-harvest handling, 5% during cleaning and drying while about 5% is lost during storage and transportation,” Vuciri said.
Vuciri also revealed that farmers start losing their produce before harvest as they leave them beyond the maturity stage and they fall off and get eaten by vermin.
He adds that farmers also lose their produce during drying, and threshing, more especially during storage if the moisture content is not well monitored and the produce develops aflatoxins.
Vuciri appealed to farmers, food producer dealers, and hotel owners to adopt traditional and indigenous knowledge to mitigate food waste to address food insecurity and malnutrition in the region.
He advised farmers to use locally available materials to make granaries saying they are a safe way of preserving grains and cereals.
Johnson Opigo, the production Officer of Obongi district, argued that several farmers in the district do not have food stores and share space with their foodstuffs, which attracts a lot of rodents in the house.
Opigo suggested that there is a need to review the policy regarding food waste in Uganda.
“The food service industry is dominated by the informal sector, and government interventions that can address food waste only target the formal sector,” Opigo said.
Opigo also advised farmers to plant, use communal labor to harvest their crops timely, and do proper drying to prevent food waste.
Farmer’s experience
Angela Kinyaa a member of the group farmer that was initiated by Action Against Hunger to fight malnutrition by growing organic food, acknowledged that they have been losing a lot of food during manual harvest.
Kinyaa cited that sometimes when she grows simsim and estimates to get five sacks, she gets fewer sacks because others are lost during harvest, drying, storage, and harsh weather.
“When you harvest immature crops, and they don’t properly dry, chances of loss of all the food are high,” Kinyaa said.
Joyce Chandia, a produce dealer who sells at Awindiri market said, she always encounters losses while transporting produce because of theft and sometimes damages to the bags used for storage.
“We insist because when you reach safely, you can earn some small profits, but when we encounter theft and damages, we lose more than 40%,” Chandia stated.
The district Production Officer of Moyo, Christopher Dratele, observed that due to food waste, many families are forced to eat one meal a day.
He added that most food in the Madi sub-region is lost at different stages like harvesting, and transportation, and the poor culture of consuming a lot during harvest makes some families waste a lot of food.
“At the household level, food waste occurs at different levels that are in the store, in the kitchen, and at the dining or on the plate. If we can control the waste from all these stages, we shall mitigate food waste,” Dratele said.
Williams Amanzuru, the team leader of Friends of Zoka, a local NGO working towards addressing climate change, explained that addressing food waste requires lifecycle interventions instead of a singular action targeting a particular stage of the food chain.
Idle produce stores in the community
According to Farmers Oversees Action Group (FOAG), one-third of food harvested in Uganda is lost before it reaches the final consumers. This loss is attributed to poor post-harvest handling and inadequate storage.
According to a food Waste baseline survey report 2021 done by the Uganda Cleaner Production Center (UCPC) together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten, and the value of this wasted food is worth over $1 trillion.
The government of Uganda through partners has constructed has for the last 20 years constructed hundreds of produce stores in the community to aid storage.
But is many districts of Northern Uganda, their functionality has remained low. This is attributed to poor management, conflicts due to land wrangles, lack of electricity to run the value addition equipment, poor road network connecting to the facilities, long distances from farmers and lack of transport.
