Rwanda Maize Farmers Complain Lack of Drying and storage Facilities
Since longtime ago, the issue of Post-harvest loss in the maize value has been raised by farmers from different corners of the country.
Farmers state that the issue cannot be handled until all involved stakeholders take action during and after the harvesting season, as it is the crucial time during which farmers needs more support at the drying and storage stage.
Uwamariya Dancile, President of Maize farmers’ Cooperative (COPECUMU) in Gatsibo district, says that they frequently meet stakeholders in the planting season only and later find themselves alone when it turns to harvest.
“We work together with our stakeholders in the planting time, but when we get at the harvesting stage you will find farmers alone while it is the time that requires more support as it is in the rainy season” declared Dancile.
She also adds that this absence of stakeholders plays a crucial role in the loss, as the number of facilities for drying and storage is still low compared to the produce they get after harvest.
This last seems to be a turning point of the post-harvest loss stated above, as it has been also raised in the public-private dialogues on post-harvest handling facilities for the maize value chain, dialogues convened by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with Rwanda Private Sector Federation (PSF) through its Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth Project (PSDAG).
With these dialogues which have been conducted at the district and national level established in early of 2018, farmers from different cooperatives in Rwanda stated that the loss is caused by the poor drying and storage facilities for them as they still lack enough knowledge for post-harvest handling.
At the National level Dialogues held on October 2nd, 2018, the same issues have been raised again, while at the same time there is a still challenge of a small market to buy the farmers production.
For investors in maize Processing factories, they admit that their capacities to buy the whole production are still low, but also criticize the quality of the maize they get from farmers which is sometimes poor.
After different discussions on the point, all parts admitted the gap in the drying and storage facilities as the main issue on post-harvest of maize value chain.
This is why PSF promised to put more effort in solving this issue by calling on many investors to invest in the drying and storage system in order to avoid that the produce will not stay longer to farmers where it gets harmed.
“We are going to make campaigns to find many investors who can invest in the drying and storage facilities so that the processing factories can get good produce from farmers.” Said Callixte Kanamugire, Chief Advocay Officer-PSF.
Concerning the issues of small market for Maize production, the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) says that in partnership with other stakeholders, they are working on the issue, but firstly needed is to handle the drying and storage facilities.
According to the numbers stated by farmers, around or more than 60% of the harvest for some cooperatives can be lost in one season due to the lack of drying and storage facilities.
