Facing the Food Crisis: How African Smallholders can Reduce Postharvest Cereal Losses by Supplying Better Quality Grain

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In much of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) cereal grains such as maize, rice, sorghum and millet are the main food staples. While localised supply problems are a common occurrence, widespread food crises have been relatively rare. The food crisis initiated in 2006/2007 resulted in a change in development priorities, bringing an increased focus on agriculture and a renewed interest in the reduction of postharvest losses (PHLs) as a means of increasing food availability. In the case of smallholders, most cereals are stored by farming households after harvest until they are sold or consumed during the year, a key aspect of addressing postharvest losses is through encouraging smallholders to invest more of their resources in postharvest handling and storage to maintain the high quality of their cereals and reap the rewards of higher value markets. This article discusses the renewed interest in reducing postharvest cereal losses. It focuses particularly on recent developments in loss estimation and considers how grain quality improvement can contribute to loss reduction and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.