Eastern and Southern Africa
South-South Knowledge Transfer Strengthens Food Security
Metal Silos: Refrigerators for the Poor
Post-harvest losses of maize are as high as 30% in Africa. This poses a threat to food security among small-scale farmers. The SDC is currently planning to employ a resource that has been tried and tested in Central America: silos made of galvanized tin.
Memory of a trip to the Ethiopian Highlands and a visit with small-scale farmers is still fresh: A family head led us over loamy soil to a place on the ground near his hut. Removing a wooden cover, he showed us a hole in the earth, explaining: “This is my granary; we store our harvests here. But the maize does not last long. We can eat two-thirds of it, the rest is spoiled by moisture or eaten by insects and rats.”
As in Ethiopia, so-called post-harvest losses in many other countries in Africa are drastically reducing already scant food supplies. Wooden storehouses, clay jugs, jute sacks and holes in the earth are all traditional methods of storing harvest yields. It is no wonder that post-harvest losses are caused by mildew resulting from moisture as well as by rats, mice, worms and insects.
Studies have shown that between 20 and 30% of the yield is lost after every harvest in many parts of the “African corn belt” (Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe). In Tanzania, the large grain borer (Prostephanus truncatus), a particularly insidious insect, has been a major problem since the late 1970s. Virtually no grain storage facility is safe from this pest, which can bore through even the thickest wooden boards to invade grain stored by African small-scale farmers.
Very good experience
Nevertheless, protection against this pest is available in the form of metal silos designed for household use, made of galvanized tin, with a storage capacity of up to 820 kilograms. The SDC has already had very positive experience with such silos in Central America. Through a programme known as POSTCOSECHA, Spanish for “post-harvest,” approximately 500,000 of these silos have been sold since the 1980s. As a result, post-harvest losses of 50,000 tonnes, with a value of US $12 million, have been avoided annually. SDC expert Max Streit, one of the pioneers in the POSTCOSECHA programme, says “Our silos became an absolute hit as ‘refrigerators for the poor.’
The SDC is currently promoting South-South knowledge transfer and financing a pilot project in which the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) will first clarify such questions as per-unit price, local manufacture, and disinfection components in test areas in East Africa. Thereafter, metal silos could bring major benefits in Africa as well – not only by improving food security but also by supporting local skilled trades and offering small-scale farmers better access to markets.
Further information and documents:
CIMMYT - International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (Link)
| Metal silos bring food security to El Salvador November 2008 Author: Jon Hellin and Fred Kanampiu (CIMMYT) The small Central American republic of El Salvador is characterised by a rugged topography and approximately 300'000 smallholder farmers whose livelihood security is based on the cultivation of maize and beans. Land degradation has contributed to poor yields but the problems that farmers face are exacerbated by poor crop storage and subsequent losses of 10-15 per cent of the harvested crop to pests and diseases. | |
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Feasibility Study of Post Harvest Project in Mozambique and Tanzania | |||||
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Brochure "The Metal Silo - For improved grain storage" (CIMMYT-organized Metal Silo construction training in Kenya-Malawi, with instructor from El Salvador) CIMMYT's Blog: Metal silo artisans trained in Malawi and Kenya Photo Gallery POSTCOSECHA Kenya and Malawi Report on the Postharvest Workshop in Migori District, Kenya | |
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Download (TIF, 3858 KB):[en] |
Helvetas Mozambique among the 100 finalists in the 2009 Global Development Marketplace of the World Bank and on YouTube!
Development Market finalist projects aim to protect the most vulnerable from disasters, while also helping them to develop economically. Such initiatives are called "linking adaptation to development". In Mozambique droughts keep about 500,000 people in chronic food insecurity and indications are, that dry periods aggravated by climate change will stretch out beyond the current "hunger period" of October to January.
Helvetas Mozambique, as one of the finalists, describes what happens:
"Without access to quality seeds, subsistence farmers practicing rain-fed agriculture continue recycling grain that has been exhausted after generations of cultivation, producing poor yields. Storage losses cause 22 percent of rural households to run out of stocks and suffer from food shortages during the 'hunger period'".
To break this cycle, Helvetas Mozambique proposed what is called a "zero-emission fridge" consisting of low-cost storage facilities run by community-owned seed banks that "distribute quality seeds of improved crop varieties and serve as a social safety net to benefit for more than 10,000 rural households - focusing particularly on the most resource-poor and vulnerable groups".
Gilberto Tehetere, a native farmer from the Cabo Delgado Province invented the "Zero Emission Fridge for Rural Africa" (ZEFRA) by reconstructing a metal silo using only locally available low-cost materials and applying traditional construction techniques. Basic design of the ZEFRA is a weaved bamboo structure, meticulously covered with clay all-around. The shape is cylindrical and the two openings (for filling and emptying) are closed with tightly fitting clay-covered hatches. The "fridge" stands on a base that incorporates vermin traps to protect the 250 kg of grains from rates and mice. It is kept under a simple shelter to maintain it cool and dry. More than 900 "ZEFRA" have been already produced and are used by rural communities in Northern Mozambique. Aim of the project is to propagate and to replicate the technology in other regions of the country. 
The 100 finalists have been selected through a rigorous assessment process to showcase their ideas in the 2009 Global Development Marketplace Competition on Climate Adaptation to be held at World Bank Headquarters this November. We are very proud that the proposal on post-harvest of Helvetas Mozambique was selected among the 100 finalists and congratulate all team members involved into the project to their outstanding contribution on ZEFRA.
Besides the team has supported the making of three videos, one showing the construction steps of the low-cost silos as an animated story which is just great! The other two videos are a digital story in Portuguese with explanation in English. Have a look here: http://www.youtube.com/user/HelvetasMozambique
To read more about the WB Development Marketplace on Turning Ideas into Action click on http://blogs.worldbank.org/dmblog/
The World Bank - Climate Change - Mozambique: Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change Study
