Marketing, processing, storage
Processing, storage
Research reports for "transport"
Processing, storage
Research reports for "transport"
- Simple transport solutions cut drudgery and improve livelihoods
In Uganda, Intermediate Means of Transport (IMTs) -such as pack animals and ox and donkey carts - are lessening rural women’s burden by helping to move crops, water and firewood. Previously, women covered their transport needs by head-loading, carrying heavy bundles from the field to the homestead and from there to the market. The use of oxen for ploughing is also enabling farmers to pay back quickly the loans they take out to purchase draught animals and carts. At the community level, IMTs are being used to haul building materials for community centres, schools, and churches. The Uganda Transport Forum Group has helped to spread the use of IMTs, coordinating project activities among farmer groups, intermediary organisations and international research institutes. (Ref: CPH27) - Community Parliaments make voices heard and needs felt
Community Parliaments (CPs) offer well-structured, innovative mechanisms for making local voices heard. They also improve coordination and dialogue among community groups, creating an empowering platform to steer local development. In Kenya, farmers had little access to market-chain information, and lacked basic farm inputs, labour and credit. Intermediaries, who deprived farmers of their profits, ran markets. Finally, poor infrastructure made it difficult to get farm produce to markets. Community Parliaments have helped to change this picture in four parts of Kenya, addressing these and other problems. Micro-credit is one of the important services they offer. The government, private companies, and development agencies are using CPs to reach almost 10,000 people in the four locations and the model is quickly spreading to other parts of the country. (Ref: CPH11) - Shouldering the burdens of the poor
A new toolkit is available that makes clear the benefits of using draught animals to provide power on-farm. It’s now being recognized that the use of animals is not a backward technology, but rather one that provides real benefits. They can, for example, be used to apply minimum tillage and prevent erosion in fields - because they do not tear up the ground in the same way that a tractor would. Available on CD-ROM, the new toolkit contains a large amount of information and training materials on animal power, including examples and case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Subjects covered include animal welfare and keeping animals healthy, as well as techniques for conservation agriculture. (Ref: LPP09) - Getting to grips with fish losses
People can now use a new computer programme to enter local data and work out how best to prevent losses in a particular fish market chain. They can also see the effects of steps that could be taken to reduce losses. Most small fishers cannot freeze or chill the fish they catch. This means it soon spoils and fetches lower prices than fresh fish. Smoking, drying or salting preserves fish for longer but even then it’s often damaged by poor processing, storage or transport. Tested in Ghana, India and Uganda, the programme has been used in Cote d’Ivoire and Tanzania and is now spreading in the Philippines. The potential impact on livelihoods is large as returns per 100 kilograms of fish can rise by US$5-6. (Ref: PHF09) - Handy bales save livestock keepers money
Working with farmers in Tanzania, researchers have developed a simple way of making bales by hand. Since transporting feed is a major cost for poor producers, the technique could have a major impact on their livelihoods - reducing transport costs by up to 60% in some cases. Using a bottomless box as a frame, and trampling the contents to compact it, farmers can quickly create bales from a wide range of crop residues, including maize and hay stover and bean stems. Not only can a lot more be packed onto a single pickup truck - reducing costs - it’s also much easier for livestock owners to store feed when it’s packaged in bales. (Ref: LPP05) - Improved marketing methods ensure smallholder access
Regulated warehouse receipt systems (WRSs) are helping to combat persistent problems in agricultural marketing and credit systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Such problems include highly variable seasonal prices (especially for staple grains), cheating on weights and quality, and limited access to credit. They stem from a lack of efficient storage facilities, poor rural transport, poorly developed systems of standard grades and measures, unreliable market information systems and lack of collateral for bank loans. WRSs address many of these issues, to the benefit of both producers and consumers. The systems are open to all players and include specific mechanisms to ensure access by smallholders. They are being applied in Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as in Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland and Russia. (Ref: CPH18) - Knowledge brings opportunities in emerging domestic fish markets
Small producers and cooperatives can take advantage of emerging domestic markets when they know how they work and what consumers want. Helping producers learn about consumer preferences and the options for selling, processing, transporting and marketing their fish lowers their costs and helps them get better prices. Producers in Vietnam were able to reorient their products very quickly to the emerging domestic market when the bottom dropped out of the US market for catfish. In Thailand, fish production for the domestic market has nearly doubled over the last decade. Helping producers learn about market chains and domestic demand for fish could have a huge impact wherever there are growing urban centres in Asia and Africa. (Ref: AFGP08) - Pro-poor vaccine-based control of East Coast fever
In Central and East Africa, work is ongoing to give producers access to effective vaccines that will protect their cattle against the devastating disease East Coast Fever. This could greatly improve the lives of poor livestock keepers, as East Coast fever is responsible for about half of all calf deaths in pastoral and agro-pastoral production systems in these areas. One thrust of these efforts is the promotion of the infection and treatment method (ITM), which has already been shown to be effective but which has not been widely taken up for a variety of reasons. Other efforts are concentrating on the development of next-generation vaccines that are safer, costs less, and are easier to transport. (Ref: AHP14) - Sweet potato boosts health and incomes
Simple techniques for improved sweet potato transport, curing, packaging and storage can help farmers, market traders and consumers to cut their post-harvest losses. This crop’s hardiness and, more recently, its promise for combating vitamin A deficiency have rightfully gained it a reputation as a lifesaver. Yet problems after the harvest limit its contribution to incomes, food security and health. These technologies, which have enormous potential for saving lives and improving livelihoods, have been tested in Tanzania with good results and are now ready for wide dissemination. Consumers also have shown their approval of new vitamin A-rich orange fleshed varieties, which are being promoted in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Zambia. (Ref: CPH40)
