By Denis Okello
Farmers in northern Uganda are said to be losing 40% of their crops in poor post-harvest handling.
The losses are as a result of poor harvesting practices, transportation, drying, threshing, cleaning, bulking, and storage of grains.
The director of Ngetta Zonal agricultural research and development institute (ZARDI) Dr Laban Turyagyenda says on average, the losses are up to 30 percent nationally.
Ngetta ZARDI has a catchment area of Lango and Acholi sub-regions.
Godfrey Otim, an agronomist at Ngetta ZARDI also substantiated that 10%-30% of grains are lost during transportation while 20% to 30% of losses are as a result of poor storage.
Turyagyenda said the losses can be avoided if farmers are sensitized on best harvesting practices using recommended equipment.
Early this week, Solidaridad which is an implementing partner of the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) trained over 100 farmer groups’ leaders and extension workers of Lango and Acholi sub-region on post-harvest handling.
DINU is a European Union funded project being implemented by the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) with other consortiums like Solidaridad, Sasakawa Africa, Lira University and Muni University among others.
The objectives of the training was to equip the participants with appropriate knowledge on control measures during and after harvest of grains.
“We have adequate experts to sensitize farmers on harvest and post-harvest management but sometimes we are constrained due to limited resources”, Laban added.
Horace Okello a livestock technician at Ngetta ZARDI cautioned farmers to use recommended chemicals to spray their crops to reduce losses from harsh chemicals because it can also result in post-harvest losses.
The project officer of Solidaridad Christopher Amodo expressed their commitment to train farmers on post-harvest handling to minimize losses and produce crops that meet the required market standards.
“We have also trained the farmers and extension workers on value addition in order to enhance the quality of produce to reach the markets”, Amodo said.
In addition, Amodo said that they are encouraging farmers to embrace group marketing of produce to address the longtime cry that middlemen have been buying produce from them at farm gate prices which could not allow them to improve their economic capacities.
Irene Arayo, an extension worker from Abako sub-county in Alebtong district, said the DINU project will go a long way to improve the quality of crops produced by farmers visa-vies markets for their products.
Benson Dola, the chairperson, Note Ber cooperative society in Angetta sub-county, Alebtong district commended NARO and Solidaridad for taking this great step towards saving them from making losses.
The chairperson of Aber commercial farmers’ cooperative society Hassan Ocen hopes that they will utilize the knowledge to improve on quality and quantity of produce to enable them to have access to better markets that can offer them better money compared to what they used to get from off-takers.
