Ghana - Improving food security and income for smallholder farmers through improved post harvest technology.
Briefly describe the innovation challenge or opportunity that your partnership wants to address:Post harvest losses continue to undermine food security and incomes of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, threatening livelihoods of vulnerable households. Post harvest losses of cereals and grain legumes have been estimated to be between 10% and 30% in most Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). In Ghana, for instance, where annual average maize production is estimated at 147million tonnes, a 30% loss could translate to as much as 400,000 tonnes. In the absence of cost effective, safe and user friendly storage technologies, farmers are compelled to sell their produce immediately after harvest when prices are lowest and often below production cost. Most times, a few months after the farmers have sold their produce at such low prices they start buying the same at much higher prices. Yet a few months of storage of grains gives smallholder farmers the opportunity to increase their earning by sometimes fourfold, while enhancing household food availability.
The use of hermitically sealed bags is a relatively new and cost-effective technology which has been used for the storage of cowpea and is currently being modified and adapted to suit the storage of other grains and legumes including maize. The technology has the potential for contributing to improvement of food security and income for small scale farmers and their families, supporting health and eco-friendly conservation of grains by reducing the use of chemicals as well as contributing to reducing the impact of plastic waste from storage bags in the rural environment. However, most famers are unaware or not convinced of this technology and its benefits. The proposed partnership is therefore aimed at continuing adaptation research, promoting wide dissemination and adoption of the technology by millions of small scale farmers in SSA.
Composition of the proposed partnership:
Partner 1 (Applicant) / Name of organisation: Concern Universal (Ghana and Malawi country programmes)
Country of registration: United Kingdom
Type of actor: Non-governmental organization
Relevant expertise: Concern Universal is a community development organization with core competences in farmer and community mobilization, facilitation of extension services, farmer training and brokering of multi-stakeholder partnerships. CU has been leading Donor funded programmes in agricultural development in countries including Ghana, Malawi, Gambia, Guinea and Senegal, over the past 10 years. For instance, CU was the lead partner in the EC funded Livelihood Improvement through Institutional Strengthening, Food Security & Environmental Management project in the Gambia, which had the objective to support two of the most vulnerable groups in The Gambia, namely women farmers and youth, to address the root causes of poverty, by providing training and extension support in horticultural and livestock production to increase farm income and food availability without compromising future use of natural resources. Currently, on-going in The Gambia is another EC funded project aimed at raising farmers’ awareness on best agricultural practices and sustainable natural resource management techniques; increasing producer productivity and market access as well as enhancing household incomes and food security. Concern Universal Ghana has been working with smallholder farmers in the Upper West and Brong Ahafo Regions for the last 10 years, assisting farmers to adopt improved and sustainable farming practices for poverty reduction and improved livelihoods.
Experience in innovation partnerships: Concern Universal is currently working in partnership with FARA and the University of Ghana to support a pilot phase of the adaptation research and promoting farmers adoption of the triple layer hermitic bags for the storage of maize in the Upper West Region of Ghana.
Legal status: Non profit making NGO: Company Limited By Guarantee, and Registered Charity.
Role and responsibilities:
Leader /Coordination of the partnership.
Community and farmer mobilization.
Promotion of dissemination of technology in partnership with relevant country level state institutions.
Monitoring and evaluation in collaboration with other partners.
Stake in the innovation challenge/opportunity: Concern Universal will facilitate the development of appropriate technology and linkages to enhance spread and utilization among farmers.
Expected input and complementarity: Concern Universal’s established grassroots presence, relationship with farmers and their organizations, personnel with relevant skills to facilitate beneficiary mobilization and experience in partnership building will complement the activities of the research institutions, producers and distributors of the hermitic bags as well as extension service providers to ensure that the proposed innovation is widely disseminated and adopted by smallholder farmers in Ghana and Malawi.
Partner 2 / Name of organisation: Institute of Agricultural Research, College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon
Country of registration: Ghana
Type of actor: Research Institute in a University which conducts research, teaching and learning of pertinent areas of agricultural science, particularly in Ghana and to develop technologies (i.e., improved planting materials-eg. Citrus, mango, rice, maize and pepper as well as improved breeds in livestock and poultry.
Relevant expertise: Strengths and capacity to conduct both on-station and on-farm research and to dispatch post graduate students into research programmes for capacity development.
Experience in innovation partnerships: Over the last twenty years the Institute has pioneered and been involved in Integrated Production and Pest management (IPPM) and the mechanisms to implement IPPM at the farmer level (incorporating nutrient and soil amendments as well as enhanced agronomic practices to manage insect pests for the production of healthy crops). IPPM is a novel approach to insect pest management. Since the Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, where chapter 21 of the Conference Recommendations requested that Integrated Pest Management (IPM) should be implemented at the farmer level, emphasis on Insect Pest Management is gradually shifting to production of healthy crops, taking into account all factors that affect agricultural production practices, rather than the traditional focus which had been on Insect pest populations and their damage threshold levels.
Legal status: University institution
Role and responsibilities: Research Leader:-
Conduct research for evaluation of the technologies in the partnership.
Identify and second post graduate students to conduct their degree research on the program as appropriate.
Provide research mentorship to the students on the project.
Provide laboratory space and access to available equipments for the research work.
Facilitate the publication of research result in appropriate journal.
Manage the research operational fund for the students to properly carry out the research work.
Stake in the innovation challenge/opportunity: Networking for cross fertilisation on ideas and share scientific information. Also an opportunity to be of significance service to stakeholders in solving critical challenges in grain storage.
Expected input and complementarity: The Institute comprises three agricultural research centres located in strategic locations and conducts research into field and plantation crops as well as livestock, poultry and their products. It also has access to postgraduate students for research and field activities earmarked under the partnership and thus contribute to capacity building as well as facilitation of the dissemination of research results to stakeholders.
Partner 3 / Name of organisation: Bvumbwe Agricultural Research Station
Country of registration: Malawi
Type of actor: Public Research Institution
Relevant expertise: Bvumbwe Research Station is one of the research institutions within the Department of Agricultural Research Services. It has, as one of its core functions, the development of plant protection technologies, with Crop Storage, Plant Pathology, Entomology and Nematology as the main research areas. In addition, the station also provides advisory and regulatory services to the general public. It has laboratories for pest diagnostics and research. The role of advisory services involves pest diagnosis and prescribing possible management options. The institution has developed a lot of technologies related to crop protection relevant to both smallholder and large scale farmer situation and continues to review and develop more technologies in these disciplines. Presently it is actively involved in the rearing and releasing of LGB predators to control LGB which remains a major threat to stored maize grain. This complements the use of tested and recommended synthetic and bio-chemicals.
Experience in innovation partnerships: The institution has been involved in a number of collaborative research and development projects including; It is a major stakeholder in the Sub-Saharan African Challenge Program (SSA CP) in Malawi where innovation system approach is being implemented within the Innovation platforms of IAR4D. Promotion of Indigenous Vegetable Production funded by AVDRC where 5 countries (Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Angola) were involved. The other projects include Vegetable Production and Marketing in Sub Saharan Africa under the SSA-CP programme funded by FARA. The project is implemented in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Under this project, the station was involved in IAR4D during which innovation platforms involving different players/actors were formed and seen running. Bvumbwe Research was also a collaborator in the Community-Based Army Worm Forecasting (CBAF) project which covered Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The project was based at CABI-Nairobi. The institution also collaborated in a GTZ funded project on LGB Bio-control with Tanzania. Apart from these the institution also collaborates with other national and international organizations/institutions which include IITA, CIP, NRI, ARC and CABI on different projects.
Legal status: Public institution
Role and responsibilities: Participate in the formulation and implementation of research and development proposals in hermetic storage for grains. Summarize, analyse and present/publish results. Facilitate the assemblage of non-traditional research partners for the technology generation usage and evaluation.
Stake in the innovation challenge/opportunity: This will generate alternative crop storage option for farmers that is environmentally friendly. Capacity will be built in crop storage through collaboration with other countries/players and training.
Expected input and complementarity: Bvumbwe Research Station will be directly involved in the evaluation of the technology and generating necessary data for analysis and finally making sure that the technology is repackaged in a user friendly manner for the end users.
Partner 4 / Name of organisation: Bio-Plastic Limited Ghana
Country of registration: Ghana
Type of actor: Private sector organization
Relevant expertise: The production of biodegradable plastic sheets and bags for different packaging requirements, including the hermetic system for agricultural grains.
Experience in innovation partnerships: Participated in the design and production of hermetic storage bags for cowpea, maize and rice grains. This was carried out using the innovation system approach with multiple stakeholders determined along the value chain of the commodities. Participated in the determination of sustainable distribution network for the hermetic bags and other storage materials.
Legal status: Private sector practitioner.
Role and responsibilities: Production of biodegradable hermetic storage bags
Stake in the innovation challenge/opportunity: Production of biodegradable bags with differing quality characteristics to suit the demand of crop commodities under different climatic and environmental situation. Bio-Plastic will also explore the opportunity to make biodegradable hermetic storage bags available to countries where the uses of ordinary plastics have been outlawed without a suitable disposal strategy.
Expected input and complementarity: The activities of Bio-Plastic will complement the activities of other necessary partners to device acceptable materials suitable for hermetic storage at an affordable cost for smallholders’ farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Partner 5 / Name of organisation: Abrono Organic Farming Project
Country of registration: Ghana
Type of actor: Farmer Based Organization
Relevant expertise: ABOFAP has been involved in promoting sustainable agriculture; farmer to farmer extension in the BrongAhafo Region for the past 10 years. Have sufficient structure and capacity to contribute to Donor supported programs and policy discussion in agricultural research and development.
Experience in innovation partnerships: Participated in a number of multistakeholders development programs with considerable outcomes.
Legal status: Non-profit making farmers organization: Company Limited By Guarantee
Role and responsibilities:
Support mobilisation of farmers.
Participate in field level testing of the innovation.
Participate in the dissemination of the technology among other farmers.
Stake in the innovation challenge/opportunity: Participate as a key member of the innovation platform to represent farmers and contribute to innovation development along the hermetic storage technology.
Expected input and complementarity: ABOFAP is a network of farmer groups and will articulate the needs of farmers to inform the research process.
Partner 6 / Name of organisation: Environmental Development Youth Movement
Country of registration: Ghana
Type of actor: Farmer Based Organization
Relevant expertise: EDYM has been involved in promoting sustainable agriculture; farmer to farmer extension in the Volta Region for the past 10 years. Currently working with 13 different Farmer Based Organisations.
Experience in innovation partnerships: EDYM has networked farmers’ participation in several agricultural research and development program. The association is recognized by the Government of Ghana and many development partners for networking and effective capacity to bear out the farmer’s opinion in both technical and policy discussions.
Legal status: Non profit making NGO: Company Limited By Guarantee
Role and responsibilities:
- Support mobilisation of farmers
- Participate in field level testing of the innovation
- Participate in the dissemination of the technology among other farmers
Expected input and complementarity: EYDM is a network of farmer groups and will articulate the needs of farmers to inform the research process.
Where will the innovation process and the supporting research activities take place?
The field testing and adaptation trials of the hermitic bags will be carried out at farmers’ field and households in selected communities in Ghana and Malawi. Supporting research activities will be carried out in the laboratories at the University of Ghana and Bvumbwe Research Station in Malawi.
Briefly describe the role that beneficiaries and end-users have played in the definition of the joint challenge or opportunity that your partnership wants to address:
The identification and definition of the challenge to be addressed by the proposed partnership was led by small scale grains and legumes farmers who are the beneficiaries and also the end users in the proposed action. Concern Universal’s regular participatory needs assessment and review with beneficiary farmers have consistently identified the challenge of high post harvest losses and the subsequent pressure the risk of post harvest losses puts on farmers to sell their produce at the time of harvest thus hindering their ability to maximize their returns from their farming activities. Farmers have also pointed out the impact of the lack of safe cost effective storage on stability of household food availability and consequently food security.
Does the envisaged innovation process add value to existing initiatives of the partners or other actors? If yes, please explain:
Yes, the proposed innovation will augment Concern Universal’s on-going initiatives aimed at reducing poverty and improving livelihoods of vulnerable groups especially food crop farmers’ and women as defined by the current country strategy.
The innovation process will also contribute to capacity building and knowledge sharing of all partners in their non-core areas. The partnership process will enable research and development to be effectively integrated to meet the expressed needs of final beneficiaries, promoting sustainability through partnership with the private sector, thus enhancing the existing initiatives of all stakeholders.
What results are expected from the innovation process? Who are the beneficiaries or end-users? How will they benefit from the results?
Results / Beneficiaries/end-users / Benefits / outcomesSuccessful adaptation and wide dissemination of the hermitic triple layer bags for the storage of maize and other selected grains. To be networked to one million smallholder farmers per participating countries over time. / 1.Smallholder farmers in Ghana and Malawi / Reduced post harvest losses, Increased incomes,
2. Private sector producers of hermitic bags / Increased income, increased employment
3. Rural communities in Ghana and Malawi / Improved environment through reduced use of agro-chemicals for grain storage. The bags are also biodegradable which will greatly reduce soil pollution.
Commodity end users in Ghana and Malawi / Improved commodity availability for industrial and commercial uses across the season.
Please indicate briefly what the research activity is expected to contribute to the achievement of these results:
The Research activities will be focused on the following:
A. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the three layer hermetic bag for the protection of stored maize against pest infestation,under these specific objectives:
1. Determine the efficacy of triple bagging for controlling P. truncatus and S. Zeamais.
2. Assess the viability of the maize after hermetic storage.
3. Determine the exact period for total depletion of oxygen in the triple bag.
4. Assess the cost/benefit of the triple bag storage technology.
5. To create awareness on the usage and potential benefits of the Hermetic Triple Layer Sack.
Expected Outcome
It is expected that at the end of the research
- A non-toxic, environmentally-friendly method would have been promoted and be effectively used to control the Larger Grain Borer, P. truncatus and S. zeamais.
- Use of pesticides and fumigants will be avoided thus ensuring attainment of food safety standards and quality grain for consumption.