Can Storage replace Agricultural AID? --WTLanier (talk) 17:11, 3 February 2014 (PST)
Summary:
It is easy to read how African staple grain value chains are weak from Postharvest loss (PHL). Even though solutions to PHL are available, smallholder growers suffer inputs that only increase production. Poor Postharvest management wastes crops —and inputs, especially the labor that contributed to producing the wasted crop.

Lacking land tenure smallholders must suffer PHL, sell into the harvest glut or participate in urban warehouse receipt systems that tend not to help the smallholder market. Investing in on-farm storage is not an option, because when erratic politics, tenure insecurity or climate change shift smallholders, stationary storage is left behind.   Now, designed with integral wheels, storage bins are shifting (when empty) with smallholders. Inside mobile storage, harvest is off the ground, under a roof and hard for insects and mold to damage. Now small holders can store volume and quality, waiting for better prices because PHL has been replaced with marketing. Investing in mobile storage is profitable because smallholders can choose locations in value chains.

Equipped with storage and marketing would smallholders have Harvest tenure and deliver food security, for better prices, at ready markets - more effectively than Agricultural AID?

Compare the opportunity cost of "obsolete - distant - stationary" with "adopted - local - mobile" storage utility and marketing utility. Then remove the expense of wasted fertilizer and pesticide to the environment and bank the social benefits of less drudgery. Finally, invest meaningful inputs to overcome weak links in value chains and age-old challenges to National food security.

Consider how coffee is to cup, networks are to phones and how smallholders need storage and marketing. Buying coffee in a travel cup or a mobile phone has very high utility, regardless of location, politics or diverse cultures. Even though mobile storage only shifts when empty… it's cup like - low opportunity cost offers mobile phone like - very high storage and marketing utility for the smallholder.

Would better storage give smallholders the advantage needed to confront the obsolete and naive reasons causing food insecurity across Africa?

More in-depth discussion with references: Would Harvest Tenure confront obsolete and naive reasons perpetuating AID? --WTLanier (talk) 00:56, 10 February 2014 (PST)   It is easy to search the web and read at the "ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss" how African staple grain value chains are weak from Postharvest loss (PHL). Even though "Tackling post-harvest loss in developing countries is not rocket science" (E. Cousin Executive Director UN WFP), smallholder growers suffer AID and political inputs that only increase production. Poor Postharvest management wastes crops —and inputs, especially smallholder drudgery that contributed to producing the wasted crop. The lack of a more meaningful input like staple grain storage stops the utility* of tractors, seeds, fertilizers and pesticides from reaching smallholders and improving food security.
  Smallholders must suffer PHL or sell into the harvest glut because investing in grain storage is very risky. When erratic politics, tenure insecurity or climate change shifts smallholders, activities like growing and harvesting shift easily, but storage designed to be stationary does not. Moving warehouses or large metal silos is not cost effective and so 80% of Government stationary rural storage is distant and obsolete (Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project Appraisal, 2012). Like Kenyans "Poor storage puts a damper on maize farmers’ cash prospects" (Business Daily Africa), few Ghanaians are adopting naïve warehouse receipt systems (WRS) because WRS do not help the small holder (Postharvest Loss: The Case of Missing Food in Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank, 2013) market their harvest. Councils, Governments and NGO's promote naive obsolescence even though it does not reduce PHL, suffering or food insecurity.
  Now, designed with integral wheels to be never idle, metal grain storage bins are shifting (when empty) with smallholder growing and harvesting activities. Inside never idle storage**, harvest is off the ground, under a roof and hard for insects to eat. Metal storage also mitigates Aflatoxins, a poison produced by a mold that is known to cause liver cancer and compromise immune functions in animals and humans. Now smallholders can store volume and quality tactically, waiting for better prices because PHL has been replaced with marketing. Soon, investing in a never idle (movable) storage asset (Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness, January 2013) is profitable because smallholders can choose strategic locations and the utility of inputs strengthen value chains all the way to smallholders.

Compare the opportunity cost of "obsolete - distant - stationary" with "adopted - local - mobile". Then remove the expense of PHL on the environment, bank the social benefits of less suffering and invest meaningful inputs to strengthen value chains so smallholders confront the obsolete and naive reasons perpetuating AID.

Consider how coffee is to cup, networks are to phones and how smallholders need tenure over what they grow, store and market. Buying coffee in a "travel" cup or a "mobile" phone has very high utility, regardless of location, politics, tenure or climate change. Even though never idle storage only shifts when empty… it's cup like - low opportunity cost offers mobile phone like - high utility for storage and marketing.

Is it fair to say... as travel cup is to coffee, mobile is to phone, links in delivery chains are to value and tenure is to land - NeverIdle storage is "Harvest Tenure"?

Would "Harvest Tenure" let smallholders confront the obsolete and naive reasons perpetuating AID?


Notes and references

  • utility is 1. useful, esp. through being able to perform several functions. "a utility truck" and 2. functional rather than attractive "utility clothing" or "utility knife"
    • African for Field bin and NeverIdle Farms and Consulting (Ghana) Ltd

- ADM http://publish.illinois.edu/phlinstitute/category/phl-in-the-news-archive/by-region/africa/
- Encouragingly, though, tackling post-harvest loss is not rocket science. It does not require technological breakthroughs or years of high level scientific research as do some of the other challenges we face." Ertharin Cousin executive director of the UN World Food Programe in Rome. http://www.euractiv.com/development-policy/improving-global-food-security-r-analysis-528272
- Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project Appraisal (Page 56, starting #61 and Page 130 Bullet 6 and 12-C. #35) 2012. http://www.mofa.gov.gh/site/?page_id=7036
- Postharvest Loss: The Case of Missing Food in Sub-Saharan Africa, (Page 34, Text box 3.5) World Bank, 2013 http://www.donorplatform.org/load/12840‎
- Growing Africa Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness (Page 92 Innovative ways of providing collateral), World Bank, January 2013. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/africa-agribusiness-report-2013.pdf

Know also

NeverIdle storage comes in many sizes (15 - 50 tonnes):1. is sack (hermetic or sisal) friendly; 2. is designed for bulk handling dry and clean staple grains and animal feed etc; 3. works (lease or sell) for less than storage on trucks and wagons because they are too expensive to park; 4. moves (when empty) using integral wheels to where storage is needed, unlike warehouses and stationary silos that may be empty because of politics, diverse cultures or climate change; 5. reduces postharvest (and related input) loss so growers eat, process, sell more of what they grow, for better prices, at ready markets - more times.

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