For thousands of farmers in Uganda, the most agonising experience is to watch their harvest go to waste or decline in value.

Uganda is a premier producer with enough food to feed its population of 34.6 million people and have a surplus for export to the regional market. But information asymmetries and poor transport infrastructure mean some parts of the country starve while farmers in other areas suffer post-harvest losses and a decline in prices.

Maize, for example, is one of the most produced food crop in the country with enough for the domestic market and for export to neighbouring countries. Last year alone, maize production was 2.6 million tonnes, which was a slight drop from 2.75 million tonnes in 2014.  

A 2011 Food and Agriculture Organisation study shows the country suffers from high levels of poor quality grain, leading to food losses of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent.

As a result, institutions like the World Food Programme opt to import more than three-quarters of the food needed for their local and regional operations.

“The World Food Programme requires $250 million worth of cereals annually,” said Michael Dunford, World Food Programme country director in Uganda. “But at the moment, we are only sourcing about $60 million in Uganda.”

The high post-harvest losses are a result of lack of focus and allocation of resources as 95 per cent of all research investments over the past 30 years have focused on increasing food production and only five per cent on reducing post-harvest losses.

As such, farmers end up with poorly harvested, dried, processed and stored grain, with little or no protection from insects and rodents. The grain thus becomes susceptible to mould like aflatoxin.

Smallholder farmers

Inadequate post-harvest storage exposes crops to contamination by micro-organisms, chemicals, excessive moisture, fluctuating temperature extremes, and mechanical damage.

But, with faster adoption of storage technology and other proper post-harvest handling practices, smallholder farmers in Uganda will have food security and get higher returns for their produce.

Studies show that smallholder farmers produce more than 90 per cent of the maize in the market annually.

Since 2014, some 67,000 smallholder farmers in remote villages in sub-regions of Busoga, Teso, Acholi and parts of western Uganda have pioneered a method of storing grain in airtight silos — which are basically water tanks of varying size.

The plastic and metal silos enable farmers to store their harvest for a longer period and sell it when the price is good, or eat it themselves months later.

“What you put into the silo is what you get when going to sell. My silo carries 1,000kg and if there is any loss, you get 999kg, in good condition. I can say we have almost reached zero loss,” said Richard Mbowa, a maize farmer in Butagaya village, Kagoma county, Jinja district.

Before getting the first generation of silos in 2014, Mr Mbowa would produce nine tonnes of maize, but out of this, he would lose up to 30 per cent to weevils, rats and other pests. Since then, he has stored his crop and sold it after three months, earning more than twice the farm gate price.

“Last season, the price was Ush400 ($0.12) per kg at harvest but after storing, I sold each kg at Ush1,000 ($0.30),” he said.

Another farmer, Betty Mbeiza, farms soya beans and maize and she has also seen her earnings increase from both crops after using safe storage. Last year, she stored soya beans for six months and sold them for Ush1,300 ($0.39) per kg, which was Ush300 ($0.09) per kg more than the farm gate price. The silos were initially sold at a subsidised cost by up to 70 per cent and now the cost is subsidised by 50 per cent.

Bottom-up approach

According to FAO, no country should be experiencing post-harvest losses as the world is still grappling with hunger. For instance, post-harvest food losses in sub-Saharan Africa are as high as 40 per cent or 20 million tonnes of grain is lost annually, valued at $4 billion. This is enough to meet food needs of 48 million people.

In view of this, experts recommend a bottom-up approach that starts with smallholder farmers before targeting large-scale commercial farmers as the best way to achieve zero food losses.

For instance, Florence Lakwo in Gulu, northern Uganda, is a poor widow and mother of six. But she saved up and bought two silos, one with a 1,300-litre capacity and the other with a 250-litre capacity in 2014. She uses them to store her maize and sesame seeds.

Each time she has stored the grain, she has been able to sell it even three months on. Her maize has fetched her Ush800 per kg ($0.2) instead of the farm gate price of Ush300 ($0.09), and for her sesame seeds, a kg fetched Ush4,000 ($1.19) – almost twice what she would have earned if she sold it immediately after the harvest.

Centres for surplus production

The average farm size for most farmers is two acres, but at each harvest time, some like Mr Mbowa have a surplus that cannot all be stored in his 1,300-litre capacity silo. This requires extra storage facilities, or excess production to be sold off immediately to avoid loss.

For extra storage across the country, the World Food Programme has built 60 satellite collection centres of between 200 and 300 tonnes each, where farmers aggregate their surplus that can then be marketed collectively.

READ: New FAO project to help African farmers cut food losses

“Another 10 centres are to be built this year,” said Johnson Kagoye, a programme officer at the World Food Programme.

Despite the successes, Brett Rierson, the head of the Global Post-Harvest Knowledge and Operations Centre, said they “are still scratching the surface” given the small numbers covered so far.

“Over the next three years, our target is to reach 250,000 farmers and though it sounds like a big number, it’s only five per cent of farmer households in Uganda,” said Mr Rierson.

According to the 2014 Census, 72 per cent of Uganda’s 34.6 million population is employed in the agricultural sector. This means that a guaranteed market for agro-produce is a boon for household incomes and the economy.

The reality is that over the past 10 years, bulk buyers have purchased grain worth only $300 million — an average of $30 million each year, the WFP’s Mr Dunford told The EastAfrican.

But he adds that with grain quality improving, this figure could increase further as the World Food Programme bought grain for its operations in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

To supply to food aid institutions, bulk purchasers demand quality grain, which is categorised as East African Standard or Grade II, hence the reason for imports in the past from countries such as Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and even Brazil.

“We often struggle to get East African Standard II or Grade II here in the Ugandan market. So one of the reasons we supported this project, is so that we can help improve the quality of the grain in the market through proper post-harvest handling and storage.

“We are working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade, and Operation Wealth Creation and emphasising the need to raise overall standards in Uganda so that the farmers and traders are able to benefit from this market,” said Mr Dunford.

African peers lag behind

During a week-long conference in Kampala in May, Uganda was cited as a model country on the continent that is ahead of its East, West and Southern African peers in reducing post-harvest losses.

But it also emerged that for the continent to achieve zero food loss, the involvement of the private sector to scale up post-harvest programmes by supplying storage equipment, as well as government funding, are key to sustainability.  

Guinea, for instance, implemented a similar pilot programme that was supported by FAO, through the Ministry of Agriculture, targeting 5,000 farmers from 2000-2002. However, the programme could not continue due to funding challenges. 

“After the pilot, there was no money to buy the equipment, so famers went back to the old ways of storing grain,” said Jean-Luc Faber, advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Zambia, which is a grain producing powerhouse, is also yet to implement full-scale post-harvest storage programmes, according to the World Food Programme country director Simon Cammelbeeck.    

Old or new science? 

The technology of storing grain in airtight silos dates back to the 1980s grain storage revolution in Latin America — although some experts claim it could be as old as Old Testament times: How else could Joseph have stored grain long enough to ensure food security for the Egyptians.

Some of the farmers have never been to school or even heard of chemistry or physics, but they are applying the principles of science to dry and store their grain.  

Using an empty Coca-cola bottle and a pinch of salt, Merab Nabirye from Iganga district demonstrates the proper method of drying grain. She scoops up some grains of maize using a spoon and fills one-third of the bottle. She adds a scoop of salt, covers the bottle and shakes the contents for one minute.
“If the maize is not dry, the bottle will ‘sweat’. If it doesn’t, the maize is dry and ready for storing in the silo,” she said.

Salt absorbs water and mixing it with grain that is yet to dry produces moisture.