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Market Assessment for Productives Uses (Milling, Cooling) in Mozambique
PUE in Agricultural Value Chain
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 [1]. 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[2]. 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. The Mozambique Government is aware of this need for electrifying agricultural processes. Thus, the National Electrification Strategy states the importance of prioritising grid expansion to areas with high potential demand for industries, irrigation schemes and commercial farming, among others[3]. In a similar manner, it suggests that productive areas should be the focus for the deployment of mini-grids to guarantee responsiveness to irrigation and agricultural demands.[4]
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 drying in Mozambique
Research project from UEM
coming soon....
Research project from Lund University
Researchers from Lund University tested two dryers i.e one with active collector and another with passive collector for drying citrus fruits like tangerines and oranges and making jams out of them. This is an ongoing research work.[5]
Solar Cooling in Mozambique
coming soon..
Reference
- ↑ FAO (2011). Global Food Losses and Food Waste. https://www.fao.org/3/i2697e/i2697e.pdf
- ↑ WFP (2022). A bag of food and hope. https://www.wfp.org/stories/bag-food-and-hope
- ↑ Mozambique Energy for All ProEnergia Project’, http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/pt/594061554084119829/pdf/Mozambique-Energy-for-All-ProEnergia-Project.pdf
- ↑ Kameshnee Naidoo and Christiaan Loots, ‘Mozambique / Energy and the Poor – Unpacking the Investment Case for Clean Energy’, 2020, https://sun-connect-news.org/fileadmin/DATEIEN/Dateien/New/2021-01-29_UNDP-UNCDF-Mozambique-Energy-and-the-Poor.pdf
- ↑ Deslandes, E. Samuelsson, P. (2017). Testing of solar fruit driers in laboratory and in Mozambique. https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=8925639&fileOId=8925640
