Addressing yam-harvest losses in Nanumba North: Need for improved storage technologies

Pastor David Kulma is the Focal Person of Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana at Bimbilla in the Nanumba North Municipality of the Northern Region.

Last year, he harvested two acres of yam from his farm at Zibaga, about 15 minutes-drive from Bimbilla. But he faced a lot of difficulty transporting the produce from his farm to the main town because of the deplorable state of the road network linking his farm to the main town.

Fearing he could lose a significant proportion of his produce because of poor storage facilities, he immediately sold it and, therefore, could not make enough profits from his labour.

Yams are harvested between December and January in the Municipality and around that time, the entire area is flooded with the produce. This leads to low prices. However, farmers, who are able to store their yams up to June, make a lot of profit because around that time, yams are scarce whiles demand is high.

Pastor Kulma said 'we are unable to transport our yams to other parts of the country where demand is high because of the poor road network, especially during the harvest season so we sell them at low prices to few aggregators who come to the area to buy them'.

A tuber of yam could cost around GH¢1.00 between December and January, GH¢4.00 around April, and GH¢8.00 from June onwards. But quite often, because of poor storage technology and facilities, they (yam farmers) sell their produce before the end of April.

Pastor Kulma said they (yam farmers) often use pepper powder to spray the yams to prevent mouse from eating them. But the poor handling and transportation; use of chemicals during planting and exposure to mouse bites cause rapid deterioration of yams leading to post-harvest losses (PHL).

Many yam farmers in the area, after harvesting, either dig holes to bury the yams in them and pour water on them regularly to keep them fresh or erect sheds with good ventilation to store yams in them.

Efforts being made to address existing challenges

There is the need for duty-bearers and other stakeholders to collaborate to address the challenges yam farmers encounter in the area to safeguard their investment. In this regard, a number of development partners have rolled out targeted interventions to find lasting solutions to the challenges.

Amongst the interventions is the Voice for Change Partnership (V4CP) programme being implemented in the Municipality by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The V4CP, amongst others, seeks to ensure food and nutrition security in the Municipality. Grameen Ghana, a local organization, implementing the V4CP at the Municipality, held a stakeholders' forum on PHL in the area to impress on policy-makers in the area to incorporate issues of PHL in the Assembly's Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) to help address the situation.

Mr Enoch Njirib Kumah, Programme Officer of Grameen Ghana in-charge of Nanumba North and Nanumba South Assemblies, said 'the Nanumba North Municipality, based on evidence presented at the forum, has incorporated issues of PHL into its 2018-2021 MTDP and has also assigned extension officers to the communities to assist yam farmers to better handle their produce to reduce PHL in the area'.

Mr Mohammed Hamza, Deputy Director- Department of Agriculture, Nanumba North Municipality said the challenges encountered by yam farmers faced in the area are three-fold; transportation, storage and marketing.

On the issue of storage, Mr Hamza said the Assembly has engaged the farmers on a number of occasions to educate them on the appropriate ways to store their produce to reduce losses. He said 'we have trained some of them on how to erect improved storage structures to reduce PHL but many of them have not adhered to our directions.'

He said in a public-private partnership arrangement, a private firm has begun constructing a Yam Processing Factory near Wampo Dam area in the Municipality to process yam into other products as part of value addition process to earn more income.

On transportation, he said, tricycles have come to salvage the situation as they could go to places that vehicles could not go because of the deplorable state of the roads. He expressed the hope that government would work on the road network in the area to help in transporting the produce.

Yam production in the national economy

The Nanumba North Municipality is one of the hubs of yam production in the country. According to the Municipality's Department of Agriculture, yam production stood at 240,117 metric tonnes in 2015.

The figure dropped to 228,000 metric tonnes in 2016, and shot up to 376,794 metric tonnes in 2017. However, a significant proportion of yams produced is often lost due to poor handling and spoilage before they reach the end user.

According to a report titled 'Establishing the status of postharvest losses and storage for major staple crops in eleven African countries (Phase II),' published by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa in 2014, up to 60 per cent of yams produced in Ghana is lost.

A report by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) said in 2013, the country exported 26,000 metric tonnes of yam. This implies that with the right storage system and support, yam farmers can increase production in the country to earn more foreign exchange. It is in the light of this that the government through the MoTI in 2013, developed and launched the Yam Development Strategy to increase the export of yam.

The way forward

Majority of the people in the Nanumba North Municipality are farmers. Most of them cultivate yam. Yam, in this regard, features prominently in the economy of the area. Yam farmers in the area can gain more from their labour if the teething challenges affecting yam production in the area are addressed.

There is the need for government through the Municipal Assembly needs to prioritize revamping of the yam industry in the area by improving the road network in the area. This will not only ensure improved transportation of the produce to prevent it from getting damaged but will also reduce the cost of transporting the produce to other market centres.

Storage sheds- the Assembly should be supported in its efforts to establish some yam storage sheds as demonstration centres to encourage farmers in the area to adopt such technology to reduce PHL.

It has been established that yams produced organically tend to have more shelf life compared to those produced through inorganic means. Therefore, there is a need to engage more agricultural extension agents to educate yam farmers on the kinds of chemical and quantities to apply to the crop to prolong their shelf life.

The ongoing construction of a Yam Processing Factory in the Municipality as part of the One-District One-Factory initiative could be a game-changer for the yam industry in the area.

There is a need to complete the construction of the factory on time to help process yam into other products to generate more income whiles reducing PHL. Addressing PHL in the area will boost the government's Yam Development Strategy by ensuring increased availability of yams for export to earn the country foreign exchange to help in not only strengthening the country's currency but also the entire economy.