Postharvest agriculture in changing climates: its importance to African smallholder farmers

Stathers, T.; Lamboll, Richard; Mvumi, Brighton M.

doi:10.1007/s12571-013-0262-z

Cited by 103 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…(Cornwall, 2003) is an important question that we need to answer in relation to not just household and community-level institutions, but equally market mechanisms, including labour markets, as well as state laws and policies. Stathers, Lamboll and Mvumi (2013) claim that the limited discussion of climate impacts on post-harvest systems, perhaps because of women's control over post-harvest processing in Eastern and Southern Africa (this is also true of South Asia), has meant a lack of investment in upscaling the use of post-harvest knowledge in strengthening adaptive capacity.…”

Section: Collective Action Voice and Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered vulnerabilities to climate change: insights from the semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia

Rao

Lawson

Raditloaneng

et al. 2017

Climate and Development

194

119

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Emerging and on-going research indicates that vulnerabilities to impacts of climate change are gendered. Still, policy approaches aimed at strengthening local communities' adaptive capacity largely fail to recognize the gendered nature of everyday realities and experiences. This paper interrogates some of the emerging evidence in selected semi-arid countries of Africa and Asia from a gender perspective, using water scarcity as an illustrative example. It emphasizes the importance of moving beyond the counting of numbers of men and women to unpacking relations of power, of inclusion and exclusion in decision-making, and challenging cultural beliefs that have denied equal opportunities and rights to differently positioned people, especially those at the bottom of economic and social hierarchies. Such an approach would make policy and practice more relevant to people's differentiated needs and responses.

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Section: Collective Action Voice and Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered vulnerabilities to climate change: insights from the semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia

Rao

Lawson

Raditloaneng

et al. 2017

Climate and Development

194

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One of the main features of climate change, amongst others, is the rise in global mean temperatures and prolonged hot weather conditions [9]. In SA, temperature is projected to increase by 1-3 • C by 2050 [45][46][47] and its effects are likely to be more pronounced in the drier tropics than the humid subtropics [8,9]. In laboratory experiments, DBM showed activity over a broad temperature range, measured as LLTs and ULTs [36,38].…”

Section: Horticulture and Dbm In Southern Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These vegetables are grown throughout the year [6] and form the fastest growing agricultural subsector that contributes significantly to national and regional incomes [6,7]. With the persistent droughts, extreme temperatures, and flooding challenges faced in field crop production due to climate change [8,9], irrigable small vegetable plots remain comparatively reliable as an attractive source of food and income for rural households, who make up over 80% of the farming community in SA [6,10] and whose farming systems are more vulnerable to effects of climate change [9,11]. On the other hand, African urban areas of the host DBM and evidence is presented that these traits may have coevolved, parasitoid efficacy in the face of climate change may be compromised [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diamondback Moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) in Southern Africa: Research Trends, Challenges and Insights on Sustainable Management Options

2017

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Abstract:The diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, is a global economic pest of brassicas whose pest status has been exacerbated by climate change and variability. Southern African small-scale farmers are battling to cope with increasing pressure from the pest due to limited exposure to sustainable control options. The current paper critically analysed literature with a climate change and sustainability lens. The results show that research in Southern Africa (SA) remains largely constrained despite the region's long acquaintance with the insect pest. Dependency on broad-spectrum insecticides, the absence of insecticide resistance management strategies, climate change, little research attention, poor regional research collaboration and coordination, and lack of clear policy support frameworks, are the core limitations to effective DBM management. Advances in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technologies and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) techniques for sustainable pest management have not benefitted small-scale horticultural farmers despite the farmers' high vulnerability to crop losses due to pest attack. IPM adoption was mainly limited by lack of locally-developed packages, lack of stakeholders' concept appreciation, limited alternatives to chemical control, knowledge paucity on biocontrol, climate mismatch between biocontrol agents' origin and release sites, and poor research expertise and funding. We discuss these challenges in light of climate change and variability impacts on small-scale farmers in SA and recommend climate-smart, holistic, and sustainable homegrown IPM options propelled through IPM-Farmer Field School approaches for widespread and sustainable adoption.

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“…Although eight African countries are involved in this project, in this study we focus on panel household data collected in Ethiopia. This multi-topic dataset allows analysis and modelling factors, which are associated with post-harvest losses in the literature such as the method of storage, ambient humidity and temperature, market access and household education (Tefera 2012;Stathers et al 2013;Edoh Ognakossan et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-harvest management and post-harvest losses of cereals in Ethiopia

Hengsdijk

Boer

2017

Food Sec.

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Recent and systematic evidence on the magnitude of post-harvest losses in sub-Saharan Africa is scarce, hindering the identification of interventions to reduce losses. Here, we unlock standardized and systematically collected information on post-harvest management and farmer-reported post-harvest loss estimates from the Living Standards Measurement Study -Integrated Surveys in Agriculture. Using the data from Ethiopia, the objective is to disentangle factors that induce or relate to post-harvest losses in cereals. The data of approximately 2500 households and 5500 cereal records were analysed. Cereal post-harvest loss was reported by only 10% of these households. The average self-reported post-harvest loss was 24%. Rodents and other pests were most frequently reported to cause these losses. Adoption of improved storage methods was limited and most cereals were stored inside the house in bags. Random Forests (RF) was applied to gain insight into factors and conditions favouring post-harvest losses. Application of RF explained 31% of the variation in postharvest losses reported by farmers. Three major factors associated with post-harvest losses were the distance of the household dwelling to the nearest market, the distance of the household dwelling to the main road, and average annual rainfall. Losses increased the further households were located from a market or main road, and losses also tended to decrease with higher rainfall. The standardized and nationally representative survey data from Ethiopia used were a good starting point for modelling post-harvest losses but the finally available information appeared to be partial. Therefore, this paper calls for better data collection, which could help to better target interventions needed to reduce post-harvest losses.

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Postharvest agriculture in changing climates: its importance to African smallholder farmers

Cited by 103 publications

References 80 publications

Gendered vulnerabilities to climate change: insights from the semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia

Gendered vulnerabilities to climate change: insights from the semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia

Diamondback Moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) in Southern Africa: Research Trends, Challenges and Insights on Sustainable Management Options

Post-harvest management and post-harvest losses of cereals in Ethiopia

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