Small-scale Postharvest Handling Technologies Short Course/Study Tour

The Small-scale Postharvest Handling Technologies Short Course/Study Tour was successfully held during 23-27 February 2015 in Arusha, Tanzania by the Postharvest Education Foundation (PEF).

Lisa Kitinoja conveyed for the CoP on food loss reduction her feedback. 25 participants attended the course, all young horticultural professionals from Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi.  They included private consultants, resource and service providers, and agronomists working with TAHA (Tanzania Hort Association), the MIVARF (market infrastructure, value addition and rural finance) project, Great African Foods Company, World Vision and World Renew.   

The lead instructors were Dr. Lisa Kitinoja and Lizanne Wheeler of The Postharvest Education Foundation, and Dr. Diane Barrett of the University of California, Davis.  Invited guest speakers included Dr. Ngoni Nenguwo (AVRDC), Jacqueline Mkindi (CEO of TAHA) and Dr. Bertha Mjawa (value addition specialist for MIVARF, Prime Minister's Office). Five days spent together in Arusha during which a variety of classroom activities (presentations from USA based experts and local practitioners, demonstrations on temperature management, packaging and value addition) and site visits to packinghouses, AVRDC's postharvest training and services center, and the MAFC's training venue at Njiro, where there is a postharvest retail shop and demos on solar drying and evaporative cool storage using the ZECC (Zero energy cool chamber).  

“Participants expressed pleasure with the practical nature of the program, and especially with learning how to conduct simplified cost/benefit analyses for postharvest technologies, and how to use a low cost temperature probe and psychrometric chart to determine RH%” reported Lisa. She also added that “they especially appreciated the opportunity to network and spend quality time with other young professionals who are actively working in the field of postharvest horticulture in East Africa, and are looking forward to working more closely together in the future”.  

Photos © Lisa Kitinoja