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| Beans gone bad |
The
effective storage of grains such as maize, beans, cowpea, groundnuts and rice
has always been a major challenge for majority of small holder farmers, not
only in Ghana, but the rest of Africa. It is estimated that close to 70% of
grains harvested from the farm are mostly destroyed by bruchids or weevils
within three months of storage. This is due to the lack of an effective storage
method or facility for farmers and other food dealers.
Most
of the farmers contract huge loans from banks to invest in their businesses,
but they end up losing virtually everything to pests during storage, which can
easily be avoided by using the right methods.
It
is as a result of fighting this situation that the Purdue University in the
United States of America has introduced a new technology called the “Purdue
Improved Crop Storage” (PICS) in a form of bags to provide a simple, effective
low-cost method of reducing post-harvest losses in cereal crops due to insect
infestations in West and Central Africa.
A
PICS bag consists of two layers of polyethylene bags surrounded by a third layer
of woven polypropylene, thereby creating a hermetically sealed environment in which
harvested crops are stored. This oxygen-deprived environment proves fatal for
insects and bruchids and prevents them from causing harm to the stored grains.
The
PICS technology was developed in the late 1980s by Prof. Larry Murdock of
Purdue University with support from partners in Northern Cameroon with funding
from the US Agency for International Development. With other funding from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the technology was introduced to Africa in
2007 with efforts under the initial PICS program focusing on using the
technology to store only cowpea. This initial phase of the project covered 10
countries across West and Central Africa including Ghana. However, research
presently shows that the technology is as effective in all other cereal crops
as it has been for cowpea hence the reintroduction of the project to ensure
that all other cereal crops are saved during storage from weevil infestation.
Benefits
associated with the use of PICS bags
Firstly,
using the PICS bags to store foodstuff reduces the incidents of food poisoning
associated with the use of chemicals to store food. This is because PICS bags
employ the hermetic system of storage hence, food stored in them does not need
to be treated with chemicals before storage. This therefore eliminates the use
of poisonous chemicals to store food which mostly turn to cause health problems
for consumers in future.
Secondly,
the PICS bags have been proven to be a hundred percent effective in preventing
weevil infestation in all types of grains especially, cowpea, beans and maize.
For this reason, farmers and other food vendors can now store their foodstuff
after harvest and sell later during the lean season when prices go up.
According to statistics from various market surveys conducted in the Ashanti,
Brong Ahafo and the three Northern regions, rural farmers and market women make
close to one hundred and twenty percent (120%) profit more just by being able
to store their produce with the PICS bags for up to six months after harvest.
Thus the PICS bags have definitely created a unique opportunity for them to
enhance their economic wellbeing as well as ensure food security in rural
areas.
Another
significant advantage of using PICS bags is that, they are relatively cheaper
as compared to other methods of food storage. The PICS bags are re-usable once
the inner linings have not been punctured in anyway. Hence one PICS bag can be
used for several years and it will produce same results. As such, using the PICS
bags to store foodstuff will eliminate the need to buy chemicals and other
storage facilities to store farm produce which usually balloons the cost of
storing foodstuff.
Since
its introduction in Ghana in 2010, the PICS bags have provided many benefits to
smallholder farmers and other food vendors
across the country. During the first phase of implementation, the project
covered over thirty one thousand (31,000) villages across the Northern, Upper
East, Upper West, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions benefitting over three
hundred thousand (300,000) small holder farmers engaged in only cowpea
production. Having been reintroduced into the country this time to cover all other
cereal crops in Ghana, the impact is expected to be even more exponential.
Considered
as one of the most effective storage methods ever introduced with nearly a
hundred percent (100%) effectiveness, it is no surprise that farmers and food
vendors have quickly adopted the technology and are using it to store their
produce. Mrs. Hannah Nsiah is the 2010 District Best Farmer for the Ejura
Sekyedumasi district of the Ashanti region. She is also the caterer of the
government’s School Feeding Program at the Ejura Methodist School. After years
of trying all other methods of storage, both traditional and scientific, Mrs.
Nsiah says she nearly gave up cereal cultivation mainly because of the lack of
an effective storage method until she got introduced to the PICS bags.
“Now,
I can even cultivate more than one hundred acres of only cowpea without any
fears because the PICS bags are able to store my grain without loss no matter
how long I keep them.” She also added, “Even the students in my school now
enjoy the food I cook for them because I no longer use chemicals to store my
foodstuff. They see no weevils in my cowpea after cooking and the food I serve
them also always smells and tastes great because I am using the PICS bags.”
Another
very significant impact the PICS technology has brought is the creation of a
business outlet for agribusinesses and entrepreneurs across Africa. Apart from
the project providing thousands of bags to be used on experimental bases by
village farmers in chosen regions, Purdue University also provides patent
rights to an identifiable producer(s) in each implementing country to produce
the bags on commercial basis for sale to vendors and other agro input dealers
across the country who intern sell them to make profit for themselves. Since 2007,
more than 1.75 million PICS bags have been sold in West and Central Africa
alone. In Ghana, nearly five hundred thousand bags have been sold to farmers
predominantly in the three Northern regions and the transition zone since 2010.
At
the moment, there are over fifty input dealers across Ghana who retail PICS
bags to farmers and other resellers in very deprived communities in the
country. This has helped to create jobs for many people and also expanded the
business portfolios of others.
Even
though Ghana has the capacity to utilize more bags than it is currently doing
due to the large annual production of cereals across the country, the main
challenge has largely been the lack of adequate knowledge and information about
the existence and efficacy of the PICS bags on the Ghanaian market. The other
issue has to do with the low interest shown by government and Agricultural
Policy Makers since this technology was first introduced into the country with
their prior knowledge.
Meanwhile,
several visits to the farms of most of the smallholder farmers in the Northern
Sector of Ghana in particular by Savannahnews uncovered that several
thousands of them (smallholders farmers) who are not introduced to the use of
this new technology (PICS bags) still store their maize, beans, cowpea,
groundnuts and rice on their farms at the mercies of unfavourable weather
conditions, stray cattle and bushfires.
On
the other hand, the few farmers who have tested or used the PICS bags for the
storage of their produce, have not only given several testimonies towards the
effectiveness of the bags in promoting quality food storage and food security,
but have also made passionate calls on government, the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture and its agencies to take the necessary steps to recommend the use
of the PICS bag to all farmers in Ghana and other state agencies like the
National Buffer Stock Company, the School Feeding Program, Heads of Senior High Schools, Prisons
Services and other institutions which store food in large quantities for a long
time.
This
they believe will go a long way to prevent the frequent loss of foodstuff to
insect infestations during storage and also reduce the incidence of food
poisoning through chemical application thereby ensuring food security in the
country in many years to come.
