How do you tell the story of post-harvest food loss in Africa in a way that connects with people?
To help answer that question, we chose to work with Africa 24 Media. Well known for their trademark show Africa Journal (co-produced with Reuters) that celebrates Africa’s growth and development, A24 took the YieldWise story to television.
Reducing post-harvest loss is important not only because it puts more food into the hands of people who need it, but it also leads to more income for small-scale farmers; small and medium businesses have healthier balance sheets, and we preserve vital natural resources. Together with A24, we set out to Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria to tell stories about the people engaged in this work and what it took to create positive change.
Tanzania Maize Storage
These are not just stories of improved livelihoods—they are also stories of behavior change at the community level. Through farmer aggregation and training, and the ongoing work to access financing and technologies, you will see how farmers acquire new knowledge and skills valuable to their businesses. Yet the choice to take the next step and implement and test the new methods is entirely in the farmers’ hands. We see how, despite complexity and cultural and generational practices, they are brave enough to try something new.
Nigeria Tomato Farmers’ Cooperative
To date, 135,000 smallholder farmers have been aggregated into farmer organizations and trained in improved post-harvest management methods. The majority are using loss reduction technologies such as fruit fly traps, crates, hermetic bags, and other solutions. And more than 12,000 value chain actors have gained access to financing through loans and other services.
Mangoes feature
The A24 productions take us deeper into the world of small scale farmers, their families and communities, and provide a glimpse into the daily, practical gains of YieldWise. One farmer is Talatu Idriss, Chairlady of a tomato farmer organization in Kano, Northern Nigeria. She and the members of her group leased a parcel of land and planted tomatoes last season. They then applied the post-harvest management techniques they had learned from a YieldWise funded training session conducted by PYXERA Global, our implementing partner. The results amazed them.
Watch our YieldWise videos here!
This post was originally published in August 2017 and updated in August 2018.
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