Market Assessment for Productives Uses (Milling, Cooling) in Mozambique

Overview

Food wastage in agricultural value chain due to poor post-harvest processing, storage and transport is a growing problem which has a significant impact on global food security and eliminating hunger. As compared to developed countries, in developing countries most of the food losses happen post harvest and the losses are as high as 40%. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than one third of fruits, roots and tubers are lost post-harvest and per-capita food losses is around 120-170 kg/year . In Mozambique, for every 10 kg of food grown, at least 3 kg are lost post-harvest due to poor processing, storage as well as transport of the food. Thus, post-harvest technologies such as milling, drying and cooling could significantly reduce the post-harvest losses and help to increase income for the farmers along with improved food security. Mozambique, where over 70% of the population depend on agriculture for livelihood, could benefit from these technologies to increase productivity along the agriculture value chain.

Only 31% Mozambicans have access to electricity in 2018 and thus, renewable powered post-harvest technologies have even a bigger potential as they target farmers working in rural and off-grid areas in Mozambique. Productive use of energy using renewables (PUE) is still very new in Mozambique and there are very few companies/initiatives/energy programmes focusing on incorporation PUE in agricultural value chain. For post-harvest technologies like milling, drying or cooling, there are few pilot projects ongoing but no commercially deployed projects. This article outlines the different initiatives in Mozambique.

Solar Cooling in Mozambique

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