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Postharvest loss reduction throughout commodity value chains is an important pathway to food and nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa. However, lack of understanding of the location and share of the losses and associated factors along the postharvest value chains remains a major challenge to operationalizing postharvest loss mitigation strategies. This paper assesses the determinants of postharvest losses at each postharvest stage of maize and sweetpotato (white fleshed and orange fleshed) value chains for smallholder farmers using our cross-sectional field survey data from two districts in Uganda. An ordered probit model estimation reveals that self-reported perceptions of the level of quantitative postharvest losses at different stages of commodity value chains are influenced by socio-economic factors as well as existing postharvest handling and storage practices. Increased years of education and training received on postharvest management are related to lower perceived levels of postharvest losses at key stages of value chains. Lower perceived postharvest losses are also associated with: at transport to homestead the use of sacks and bicycles as opposed to the use of baskets or transporting by trucks; at drying the use of tarpaulins as opposed to use of plastic sheets; shelling using bare-hands as opposed to beating cobs in sack with sticks; storage in a brick and mortar store as opposed to storing in living room in the house.

The yield difference between corporate bonds and equity dividends has narrowed dramatically As investment-grade yields contract in line with the burgeoning economic recovery, investors are faced with a choice of [...]

Cassava is a major crop for food security in Nigeria and its principal processed form is gari. Gari processing practices were observed in the south-west (Oyo State) and south-east (Benue State) of Nigeria using two complementary approaches: 1) semi-quantitative surveys with processors (n = 123); and 2) actual detailed measurements at processing units (n = 7). Size of processing operations and types of practices differed significantly between the two states. There were also intra-state differences, influenced by ethnicity and customs. Variability of processing practices should be considered while seeking to improve processing productivity and introducing nutritious varieties of cassava to feed the fast-growing Nigerian population.

I have been reading about watchstanding and fatigue and thought I would pass on an enlightenment I had recently. Having stood the first watch (0600-1200, 1800-2400) and also the after [...]

Today, a manufacturer has less and less time to conceive, develop, design and get an electronic product to market. Many manufacturers have turned to sophisticated design simulations to speed the […]

This study analysed gender dimensions of decision-making at the household level in cassava enterprise in Ghana, Nigeria, and Vietnam in the context of risks and benefits to food security to ensure value addition to reduce post-harvest losses from cassava. Rapid participatory rural appraisal was used to select a total of 501 households in the countries chosen for this study. Focus and group discussions (F and GD) and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Data were analysed descriptively. Twenty cassava-based activities linked to gender activities in cassava processing households in the selected countries were identified. In all three countries, final decisions to allocate and use resources were taken by men – although women are commonly responsible for post-harvest management. Ownership of production and processing assets is positively skewed to men across the sample with women having rights of use only. Household decision-making objectives for generating peels and attitudes towards cassava peels vary by country and by lineage/descent, largely influenced by culture, level of education, religion, formal employment opportunities, and income levels. Household cassava peels utilization has low value and is therefore not a focus of male interest in Ghana and Nigeria but if value is added, this dynamic may change. This was different in Vietnam where peels are processed generationally for additional household income. This study proposes the design of empowerment/development strategies such as group dynamics and skill acquisition to increase women’s bargaining and decision-making capacities and reduce male/elite capture of interventions.

Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat Philip Lymbery with Isabel Oakeshott 2014, Bloomsbury, 426 pages, paperback, ISBN 9781408846421, £12.99; ebook £10.99Food System Failure: The Global Food Crisis and the Future of Agriculture Christopher Rosin, Paul Stock, and Hugh Campbell (eds) 2012, Earthscan from Routledge, 256 pages, paperback, ISBN 9781849712293, £23.31

Whichever way you lookat it, cassava is important for the future of Africa. Whether from the perspective of tackling hunger in a world of uncertain climate conditions, as a source of food security when other crops fail, as a means to create a cash income through processing and sales, as a driver of local agro-industry, as a way of reducing the cost burden of imports through substitution and/or biofuel production, or, for many hopeful politicians, as a future export crop with comparative advantage. The FAO says that the world produced 277 million tonnes of cassava in 2013, of which 158 million tonnes came from Africa (57 per cent) and 54 million tonnes from one country, Nigeria (19.5 per cent). None of this African production is traded; all is consumed domestically. How much is lost post harvest: we only have a vague idea. What we do know is that yields are very low by international standards. On a recent mission to Nigeria I listened to a group of experts agree a target yield of 12 tonnes a hectare; a low level of ambition when the starting point is somewhere between 6 and 12 tonnes per hectare and the most efficient are reaching 20 to 30 tonnes per hectare.

Bennett, Ben D., John R. Huguenard, and David A. Prince.Adrenoceptor-mediated elevation of ambient GABA levels activates presynaptic GABABreceptors in rat sensorimotor cortex. J. Neurophysiol.78: 561–566, 1997. At inhibitory synapses in the mature neocortex and hippocampus in vitro, spontaneous action-potential-dependent and -independent release of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) activates postsynaptic GABAAreceptors but not pre- or postsynaptic GABABreceptors. Elevation of synaptic GABA levels with pharmacological agents or electrical stimulation can cause activation of GABABreceptors, but the physiological conditions under which such activation occurs need further elucidation. In rodent sensorimotor cortex, epinephrine produced a depression in the amplitude of evoked monosynaptic inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) and a concomitant, adrenoceptor-mediated increase in the frequency of spontaneous IPSCs. Blockade of GABABreceptors prevented the depression of evoked IPSC amplitude by epinephrine but did not affect the increase in spontaneous IPSC frequency. These data show that adrenoceptor-mediated increases in spontaneous IPSCs can cause activation of presynaptic GABABreceptors and indirectly modulate impulse-related GABA release, presumably through elevation of synaptic GABA levels.

In 2015 we considered small-scale cassava processing in this journal with interesting results. Since then, cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa has continued to grow by volume, and new uses and value chains are slowly emerging. But many of the founding conditions that hold the sector back remain in place. A tiny fraction of farmers have access to improved cassava planting material and varieties, or farming methods that increase productivity, despite significant investment by major donors. Rural infrastructure remains the key constraint to any leap forward in efficiency in the sector. Policy remains at odds with reality, with new calls for fixed cassava quotas in domestic foods, but very little coordinated action to support these demands.

Explores citizens' fight against big box urban development in Guelph, Ontario. Opposition to the development of big box stores; Promotion of community values; Improvement of quality of life.