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2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

7. Storage and Post-harvest Losses

Authors : Alan de Brauw, Erwin Bulte

Published in: African Farmers, Value Chains and Agricultural Development

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Poor storage causes additional problems for smallholder farmers, as they are pressured to sell crops immediately after harvest. As a result, in Africa in many years prices for major grains fall right after harvest and peak just before the next one. Poor storage can also lead to post-harvest losses. Yet good post-harvest loss measurements are scarce, particularly for vegetables; since information on actual losses is poor, it is difficult to design cost-effective interventions to reduce them. With improved storage, farmers could reap returns to higher prices later in the season. More regional storage can also support warehouse receipts systems, which can be used both as collateral and to develop commodity exchanges. Yet again, transaction costs to using regional storage are high for smallholders.

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Throughout the chapter, we largely limit our discussion to food crops, rather than discussing storable non-food crops such as cotton and tobacco.

Farmers may not have access to the best technologies for private storage either, so they may face higher losses when storing privately.

The data used are from FEWSNET (2021), and we use the FAO harvest calendar.

See Jensen (2007) for an excellent example of this principle applied to Indian fisheries; as cell phone towers were erected, fishermen could learn prices between markets as they came to shore and prices between markets equilibrated.

In fact, a system called the Africa Post-Harvest Loss Information System (APHLIS) was set up to compile evidence on post-harvest losses in Africa; it also demonstrates that much of the evidence is of poor quality.

Here we name it after the Policies, Institutions, and Markets CGIAR Research Program which provided funding for the research.

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Title: Storage and Post-harvest Losses
Authors: Alan de Brauw
Erwin Bulte
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: African Farmers, Value Chains and Agricultural Development
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-88692-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-88693-6

Copyright Year: 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88693-6_7

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