The Future of Smallholder Farming in Eastern Africa - Uganda ...

occur at all stages of post-harvest handling, including pre-processing, transportation, storage,
processing, packaging, and marketing. Post-harvest grain losses can be classified as
quantifiable (decreases in weight and economic value) and nonquantifiable (decreases in
nutritional value, energy, and quality) (Toma, Fansler, and Knipe 1990). In a wider sense,
the magnitude of post-harvest loss goes beyond the physical deterioration in quality to
include “sunk” cost in terms of the wasted inputs used to produce the lost grain.
As noted earlier, the common forms of post-harvest grain management activities include
storage, treatment, processing, and stock management (for example, loans, sales, purchases).
In the absence of well-functioning rural savings or credit institutions , holding stocks of grain
at the farm level may be considered a close substitute for cash banking. In addition, the
convenience of having grain stock to draw upon throughout the year may also play an
important role in the farmer’s decision to hold stocks of grain. Farmers may also practice a
kind of stock management when they lend or sell grains, at different seasons of the year, to
other farmers for later repayment—either in kind or cash. Hence, where formal financial
institutions do not exist, grain stock management may be an important method of ensuring
household food security.
The extent of the post-harvest loss and the management choices differ with crop types. For
perishable vegetables, post-harvest losses can go as high as 100 percent (Toma, Fansler and
Knipe 1990). Cereals and pulses are also vulnerable to insect attack at all stages and therefore
require continuous protection. Inadequate storage immediately after harvest and before
processing adds to the problem. Damage from infestation continues during transportation and
the storage period before processing, causing an estimated overall loss of more than 30
percent. 22 Experts in this kind of analysis cite minimum post-harvest losses of 10 percent for
durable crops.
The relationship between post-harvest grain management practices and food security is
conceptualized in Figure 1. At the household level, food security can be defined as
availability of and sustained access to adequate food. It is determined by the amount of output
produced (1, in Figure 1), which is itself a function of an adequate endowment of resources,
the amount of post-harvest grain loss (3), and food prices (2).
Grain loss, either in terms of quantity damaged or quality deteriorated, is related to postharvest
grain management practices (5), including storage, handling, processing, and stock
management, which in turn are a function of endowment and access to resources including
credit (6). The output level may also influence the choice of grain management practices (7),
which determines the magnitude of post-harvest grain losses (8) as well as farmer’s stock
management behavior.
The magnitude of post-harvest grain losses, whether actual or expected, influences farmers’
behavior in the marketplace (8); that is, in the absence of working insurance markets, the fear
of facing a high risk of grain loss may induce farmers to dispose of most of the grain they
produce immediately after harvest, even if they have to repurchase at some future date.
22 See http::/www.unu.edu/unupress/food/8f012e/8f012E0b.htm