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Historically, investments in improved groundnut production through agricultural research and development efforts have been devoted to increased productivity and production in the field (i.e. preharvest)
whereas much less attention has been paid to postharvest crop processing and value addition.
Researchers and development professionals are now realizing that yields cannot simply be measured at
harvest time but more importantly must be measured at time of ultimate use. The numerous postharvest
processing steps for these crops cumulatively lead to significant food wastage and loss as well as
requiring substantial, tedious family labor on a nearly continuous, daily basis. On the food quality and
safety side, aflatoxin remains a persistent problem in groundnuts produced in Africa, not only for families
consuming groundnuts but also for export. In fact, the EU effectively banned the import of groundnuts
from Malawi in the 1990s because of unacceptable aflatoxin levels. If the best-quality groundnuts are
exported, either regionally or internationally, and the poorer quality lots are kept for local consumption,
then the health impacts of aflatoxin may be worse than many might think. CTI and its partners therefore
considered this as a major issue and gave it high priority in evaluating harvest and postharvest
technologies and the foods developed for children in the child nutrition studies by SUA.
The project was aimed at identifying major challenges faced during the harvesting and postharvest
processes in order to make recommendations on technologies that will address yield losses in terms of
both quality and quantity but also reducing labor. This is ultimately expected to improve income generated
through sale of high quality processed or raw groundnuts, but more importantly to improve health and
well-being of smallholder families in Malawi and Tanzania.
Despite the region’s high potential for groundnut production, malnutrition is common among the rural
people. It is widespread in Tanzania and Malawi, and is particularly acute among children under five who
are weaned onto the staple maize-based diet that is deficient in protein, oils and micro-nutrients.
Therefore, there was an urgent need to develop improved nutritious weaning foods using locally-available
groundnuts and other crops, and to reduce drudgery associated with food preparation, which is borne
mostly by women and children. |
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