One of the major challenges against agriculture as a business in the continent, Post Harvest Losses (PHL) is said to be costing Africa about 37 per cent of its total production, with various estimates showing that the figure rises to more than half of annual output in the case of perishable food crops. This work demonstrates how mitigation actions can be used to optimize adaptation to drive socio-economic resilience using Ecosystems Based Adaptation (EBA) approaches to be climate resilient and enhance susainability.

One of the major challenges against agriculture as a business in the continent, PHL is said to be costing Africa about 37 per cent of its total production, with various estimates showing that the figure rises to more than half of annual output in the case of perishable food crops. A farmer and the Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Mr Anthony Morrison, said the solutions to PHL in Ghana were “well known and easy” although the challenge persisted. “We have always said that while we are talking about productive policies, make sure you bring on board post-harvest facilities to support the market-entry strategy,” he said.

Despite rolling out production enhancing programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) and other similar initiatives in the past, Mr Morrison said the country had failed to prioritise post-harvest management, resulting in a chunk of its produce wasting away. “Combined harvesters for maize and other facilities are the things that farmers need. Also, we need to train our farmers in new food management strategies to help reduce these losses,” he added. Cassava is a main food commodity in Ghana of all food crops grown, cassava occupied the second highest proportion of the total area cultivated (21.6 %) and national production reached 14.2 million metric tons contributing 49.5 % of total food production in 2011 (MoFA, 2011).  The conformation of cassava flour (“kokonte”) to national quality standards was estimated at 58.7 % and common defects detected included the presence of foreign matter and undesirable smell. The lack of strict adherence to quality militates against competitiveness in internal and external markets that will make the real-value of the crop be verified.

This work demonstrates practically how mitigation actions can be used to optimize adaptation to drive socio-economic resilience using Ecosystems Based Adaptation (EBA) approaches known to be climate resilient as a preferred method to produce cassava and ensure yields can be enhanced under the changing climate. In addition, clean energy has been put at the forefront to mobilize cassava farmers to use solar dryer technology to produce quality cassava which could be used for flour and other confectioneries.

Impacts of UNEP EBAFOSA intervention in the Ghana solar drying training program

Adoption of solar drying technology among cassava farmers;  All farmers surveyed dry the cassava in direct sunshine after peeling and slicing into chips. This work mapped and identified cassava farmers in two districts in Ghana to help them dry their cassava in a solar dryer.

Promotion of Climate Action Driven Agribusiness Enterprises; youth trained to fabricate solar dryers utilized the free training offered to them by EBAFOSA innovative volunteerism Ghana to cascade this climate action solutions of solar dryers technology to villages and women agribusiness groups.

Ready market for the cassava flour; this work has trained farmers to clean cassava, chip it into smaller sizes for drying in a solar dryer for 3 to 4 sunny days.

Gender mainstreaming: women were trained on how to operate solar dryers, use the solar dryers to dry their cassava chips.This work has encouraged cassava famers engage in value addition

Reduction in losses during storage of dried chips: Loss of dried chips under storage was minimized by adequate drying of chips through the use of community solar dryers, and individual solar dryers, farmers interviewed by EBAFOSA innovative volunteerism Ghana outreach department said that they can now store and sell quality pure quality cassava flour and chips to the market.

Impacts to upscaling EBA approaches

The work in Ghana demonstrated how key enablers of sustainability – especially, willing people, policy anchors and operational level incentives - can be leveraged to upscale application of EBA

a) Decentralization of solar dryers to cassava growing areas, provided an accessible means by which cassava farmers using EBA could preserve their harvest. Through this preservation, post harvest losses were reduced providing an incentive for farmers to increase their area under EBA produced cassava. As a result, 500 more farmers took up cassava farming and were trained in using EBA approaches.

b) Human capital is one of the key enablers for upscaling EBA.In Africa, the youth are the majority of the population including in Ghana. These youth were structurally guided and trained to adapt and apply their skills in an area of their interest that can be aligned to buttress upscaling of EBA – which is the fabrication of solar dryers applied in cassava preservation. Up to more than a dozen youths were trained and they produced dryers capable of dehydrating cassava to the threshold of below 12% needed to prevent cassava spoilage. These accessible technologies were what was applied to cut cassava PHLs and encourage the cultivation of more cassava using EBA approaches.

c) EBA produced cassava, dried using solar dryers, was processed into finished goods – cassava flour. The trade of the flour resulted in an up to 200% increase in income, providing a financial incentive for increased application of EBA at the farm level.

Download the newsletter to read more about the Ghana solar dryers training report.