About POSTCOSECHA

The POSTCOSECHA strategy was first developed in the 1980ies as an aid sponsered rural development approach in Honduras. It aims at sustainably anchoring technology production and technology dissemination in existing institutions and market mechanisms. Today, there no longer is an aid sponsored development program called POSTCOSECHA in Central America. POSTCOSECHA technology production and dissemination have become normal elements of the local economies in many Latin American countries.

The POSTCOSECHA development strategy includes a technology, a technology production & dissemination chain, a business model and a strategy management mechanism:

The main POSTCOSECHA technology element are locally produced metal silos, in which grain is stored and protected. The protection element with the greatest impact on loss reduction is fumigation against insect infestation.

The production & dissemination chain is made up of local tinsmiths who produce the silos, plus public and NGO training & development institutions who propagate the technology and carry out training for farmers and tinsmiths.

The business model is based on a public/private development partnership. Public funds are used to finance the strategy support measures (management, training, promotion, controlling). Private funds, coming either from family savings or provided by lending institutions, are used by tinsmiths to start or upgrade their businesses, and by farmers to purchase the silos.
Management of the strategy is by independent project management units (PMUs). The main activities of those PMUs include planning, coordination of actors and activities, quality control, and controlling.

With the POSTCOSECHA technology, farmers in Central America typically are able to pay off their initial investment of 30 to 100 USD within one or two harvest cycles, while benefits last for 15 to 20 years.