Guidelines on the measurement of harvest and post-harvest losses

FAO

Guidelines on the measurement of harvest and post-harvest losses

Estimation of maize harvest and post-harvest losses in Zimbabwe. Field test report

Year of publication 2020

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 30 p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) In the framework of the Global strategy to improve agriculture and rural statistics (GSARS), FAO provided technical assistance to Zimbabwe on the measurement of harvest and post-harvest losses through sample surveys. The technical assistance was provided in the form of a pilot study on estimating harvest and post-harvest losses for major crops in the Makonde district in the communal and A1 farming sectors. The survey focused on maize and sorghum and included the measurement of on-farm losses. The survey captured losses through interviews of farmers as well as through physical measurements. The number of usable data points for sorghum were too few to provide reliable production and loss estimates, hence the results presented in this report mostly refer to maize. The results show that 5.2 percent of grain is lost at harvest and 3.8 percent lost at drying. The comparison of the loss estimates according to the measurement method used shows mixed results; in A1 farming sectors, farmers’ own loss estimates tend to be lower than physical measurement, while the opposite is evidenced in the communal sector (except for drying). Timely harvesting was used by most farmers to limit losses, followed by stoking when harvesting and the use of chemicals to protect crops from pest infestations during storage.

Cite this content as:

FAO. 2020. Guidelines on the measurement of harvest and post-harvest losses – Estimation of maize harvest and post-harvest losses in Zimbabwe. Field test report. Rome.

Language English

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