Postharvest mechanization activities 2019/2020
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The document outlines a planning meeting focused on postharvest mechanization activities in Ghana, highlighting the transition of smallholder farmers to larger-scale production amid rising labor costs and diminishing family labor. Key findings reveal significant challenges in postharvest operations, particularly for women, with a focus on the performance of maize threshing machines, their socio-economic benefits, and the identification of various constraints faced by farmers. Future research aims to improve shelling efficiency and training for sustainable agricultural practices while addressing the impact of grain quality on market prices.
Postharvest mechanization activities 2019/2020
- 1. Issah Sugri Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) Africa RISING Ghana Country Planning Meeting 24 - 25 June 2020 Tamale, Ghana & Virtual Postharvest mechanization activities 2019/2020
- 2. Introduction • Many smallholder farmers are transforming to medium and large-scale production levels • There is dwindling access to family labour, and labour cost is rising and/non- available. • Most of manual postharvest operations are carried out by women; a trend requiring cogent efforts to reduce the burden of women
- 3. Planned activities (objectives) Introduce, evaluate, adapt and disseminate existing postharvest technologies and practices. 1. Evaluate the performance characteristics of maize threshing machines and socio-economic benefits. 2. Promote, demonstrate and train beneficiary farmers on factors affecting the performance of threshing machines and socio-economic benefits
- 4. Team deliverables • UER: Binduri and Kassena Nankane East Municipal (KNEM), NR: Savelegu and Karaga Districts • Both key informant interviews and field measurements were employed to generate relevant data from four districts • Generated information on production operations: farm size, yield, postharvest operations, factors influencing the use of shelling machines and associated challenges.
- 5. Different types of Shellers are used by farmers
- 6. Diesel engine shelling machine
- 7. Key research findings • Overall, 77.8% of the respondents are smallholders with farm size of 0.5-5ha • Low yield of 0.79t/ha was recorded but high yield of 1.26t/ha were recorded in Karaga where huge fertile arable lands still exist • Harvesting of the three major food crops (maize, rice and soybean) coincides in October to December. • This exerts stress on both family and hired labour to accomplish timely and efficient harvesting operations. • The most strenuous postharvest operation were harvesting (55.5%) de-husking (20%) and shelling (24.4%). • Preferred type of threshing machine: 66% preferred multi-shelling, 22.2% preferred shelling, and 15.6% preferred de-husking • Reasons assigned for using threshing machines: time-saving (33.3%), energy-saving (28.%) cost-saving (22.2%), loss reduction (11.%), and risk reduction (bush fires and pests) (44.4%) • Grain moisture content (%wb) range was 10-14%, mean MC%: 11.8;
- 8. • Decrease in grain moisture occurred from Oct. to Jan.; which significantly improves shelling quality • Use of multi-thresher recorded high threshing losses (3.4%) compared to semi- mechanized machines (1.9%) • Use of multi-threshers recorded low grain purity (97.6%) compared to semi-mechanized machines (98.7%). • Grain purity has implications on price, aflatoxins and subsequent pest infestation.
- 9. Table 1: Grain quality characteristics (moisture content, grain purity and shelling losses) as affected by threshing operations. District Grain MC (%wb) Grain physical purity (%) shelling losses (%) Diesel Powered Multi-thresher Grand mean Significance level 11.5 12.0 11.8 0.05 98.7 97.6 98.1 0.001 1.9 3.4 2.7 0.01 Binduri KNE Municipal Karaga Savelegu 12.4 12.0 11.6 11.0 98.1 98.7 97.0 98.7 3.0 1.6 3.8 2.3 Significance level CV (%) 0.01 10.8 0.001 1.0 0.01 60.9
- 10. Table 3: Farmers perception and ranking of critical constraints affecting shelling operations Constraints identified Mean score Ranking Scarcity of shelling machines at harvest Scarcity of labour at harvest High cost of labour Insect damage at storage High cost of shelling machines Low price maize at harvest Delay to harvest leading to losses Risk of bush fires destroying farms 10.88 9.11 8.88 8.60 8.17 6.96 6.87 6.22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Chi Square: 178.8 , Significance level: 0.001, Kendall’s W: 0.331
- 11. Research gap • Data has been collected only for one season and for only maize • Need to cover groundnut and soybean where shelling losses and risk of aflatoxins exist • Data to determine some SI indicators yet to be analyzed (postharvest losses with time, grain quality, aflatoxins and price etc.)
- 12. Team deliverables Deliverables Means of verification Date of Delivery Status Progress report submitted SARI-Annual Report Progress report shared Annual technical report submitted to SARI March 2020 May 2020 1st quarter report submitted Captured in CSIR-SARI 2019 Annual report Quantitative data Dataverse Sept. 2021 To be completed in time Qualitative dataset Dataverse Jun. 2021 To be completed in time Manuscripts submitted to journal Manuscript Sept. 2021 To be completed in time
- 13. Research progress towards outcomes • Farmers understanding of moisture, time of harvesting etc can reduce shelling losses, postharvest losses and improve grain quality. • Improved access to shelling machines will increase farmers time available to carry out other off-farm enterprises • Reduce drudgery associated with postharvest operations; particularly women has immense effect on physical health. Future direction of research • Need to assess threshing efficiency in soybean and groundnut too. • Hold training sessions in intervention communities on the use of threshing machines and socio-economic benefits • Assess consumer tolerance on grain physical quality when using threshing machines for maize, groundnut and soybean. • Pull data for manuscript development
- 14. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation africa-rising.net This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. Thank You