Post-harvest food losses in a maize-based farming system of semi-arid savannah area of Tanzania

cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and developing country instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Institute of Tropical Agricultureen
cg.contributor.affiliationSokoine University of Agricultureen
cg.contributor.crpIntegrated Systems for the Humid Tropics
cg.contributor.donorUnited States Agency for International Developmenten
cg.coverage.countryTanzania
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2TZ
cg.coverage.regionAfrica
cg.coverage.regionEastern Africa
cg.howPublishedFormally Publisheden
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jspr.2013.12.004en
cg.isijournalISI Journalen
cg.issn0022-474Xen
cg.journalJournal of Stored Products Researchen
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen
cg.subject.humidtropicsHUMIDTROPICSen
cg.subject.humidtropicsINTENSIFICATIONen
cg.subject.iitaFOOD SECURITYen
cg.subject.ilriFARMING SYSTEMSen
cg.subject.ilriFOOD SECURITYen
cg.subject.ilriINTENSIFICATIONen
cg.volume57en
dc.contributor.authorAbass, A.en
dc.contributor.authorNdunguru, G.en
dc.contributor.authorMamiro, P.en
dc.contributor.authorAlenkhe, B.en
dc.contributor.authorMlingi, N.en
dc.contributor.authorBekunda, Mateete A.en
dc.date.accessioned2014-02-02T09:18:06Zen
dc.date.available2014-02-02T09:18:06Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/34458
dc.titlePost-harvest food losses in a maize-based farming system of semi-arid savannah area of Tanzaniaen
dcterms.abstractAn assessment of post-harvest handling practices and food losses in a maize-based farming system in semi-arid areas of Central and Northern Tanzania was carried out in 2012. Seventeen crops were mostly cultivated by the farmers in the surveyed areas; maize (32%), sunflower (16%) and pigeon peas (12%) were the most cultivated while maize was the most stored. There are at least 7 months between two harvest seasons of each crop; while farmers sold the crops soon after harvest to cater for household expenditure (54%) and school fees (38%), the market prices increased significantly (P 0.05) within six months of storage. Most processing activities (winnowing, dehulling, drying, sorting and shelling) were carried out manually, almost entirely by women, but mechanized processing for maize, sunflower, millet, and sorghum were commonly practiced. Quantitative post-harvest losses of economic importance occur in the field (15%); during processing (13e20%), and during storage (15e25%). The main storage pests responsible for the losses are larger grain borers (Prostephanus truncatus), grain weevils (Sitophilus granarius) and, the lesser grain borer (Rhyzopertha dominica). Most of the farmers considered changes in weather (40%), field damage (33%), and storage pests (16%) as the three most important factors causing poor crop yields and aggravating food losses. However, survey results suggest that the farmers’ poor knowledge and skills on post-harvest management are largely responsible for the food losses. 77% of the surveyed farmers reported inadequate household foods and 41% received food aid during the previous year. Increasing farmers’ technical know-how on adaptation of the farming systems to climate variability, and training on post-harvest management could reduce food losses, and improve poverty and household food security.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.audienceScientistsen
dcterms.available2013-12-25en
dcterms.bibliographicCitationAbass, A. B., Ndunguru, G., Mamiro, P., Alenkhe, B., Mlingi, N., & Bekunda, M. (2014). Post-harvest food losses in a maize-based farming system of semi-arid savannah area of Tanzania. In Journal of Stored Products Research (Vol. 57, pp. 49–57). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jspr.2013.12.004en
dcterms.extentp. 49-57en
dcterms.issued2014-04en
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-NC-ND-3.0
dcterms.publisherElsevieren
dcterms.replaceshttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/76111en
dcterms.subjectfood securityen
dcterms.subjectfarming systemsen
dcterms.subjectprocessingen
dcterms.subjectstorageen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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