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Moderated conference on rural advisory services for family farms: 1-18 December 2014

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Fri, 5 Dec 2014 13:14:24 +0100
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I am Lisa Kitinoja, a postharvest technology specialist and postharvest trainer. I've worked in many countries and on many types of extension projects that focus on linking smallholders or family farms to markets, and training young professionals as postharvest extension specialists.

I've found that too little funding for extension can be a real problem (since agents will not be able to reach the farmers), and too much funding can be a different problem, leading to waste and spending on large vehicles and fancy hotels, etc. One project that I worked on recently put the majority of the funding for a "postharvest training and services center" into building a simple shed for shade, some small hand tools and supplies, and a lot of time on training of local trainers on how to do loss assessments, design postharvest demos, do cost/benefit analyses and design training programs for smallholders who produced and handled horticultural crops. So far, the 36 persons from 7 Sub-Saharan Africa countries that we trained in 2012 as postharvest specialists (some were government extension workers, some from NGOs or charities, a few have become private consultants) have gone on to train more than 50,000 people in postharvest handling, storage, food processing and marketing practices for reducing food losses. We did not provide funding for them to do training, they just integrated what they had learned into their existing jobs or new assignments.

This model (located in Arusha, Tanzania) may be useful for others who are interested in reaching out to family farmers. The training center provides a menu of options for learners - they can see demos of improved practices, learn about the costs and benefits, participate in training programs on topics of interest to them (including food safety, postharvest handling, food processing, storage or marketing), purchase tools and needed supplies from the retail shop at the site, and try out postharvest services such as packing or storage for a small fee per kg. By providing a wide range of options for many different crops and budgets, it leaves the choices up to them - they can select what best fits their needs, and change to something else if they grow bigger or change crops the next year.   

Dr. Lisa Kitinoja 
The Postharvest Education Foundation
PO Box 38, 
La Pine, 
Oregon 97739 
USA
Website homepage: www.postharvest.org
e-mail: Kitinoja (at) hotmail.com or Kitinoja (at) postharvest.org
Mobile phone: (916) 708-7218 
Linked In website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kitinoja
Company website: Postharvest Innovations LLC www.postharvestinnovations.com 
Arusha short course/study tour (February 2015): http://postharvest.org/2015_tanzania_short_coursestudy_tour.aspx 
Bali short course/study tour (February 2016): http://postharvest.org/pef_2014_bali_short_coursestudy_tour.aspx 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/264776/   

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