The effects of pre-harvest practices on food loss in Gucha Sub-county, Kisii county, Kenya

Abstract

One of the crucial and significant factors for ensuring a successful agricultural food production among smallholder farmers is pre-harvesting procedures. Pre-harvesting is considered the last step in agronomy that ushers in food harvesting, and should be approached as the first one in the post-production system, due to its impact on the amount of food loss and waste. In most rural areas of the world, little focus has been invested towards understanding how household food-resource handling procedures contribute to incidences of food insecurity. This paper investigates the effects of pre-harvest practices on food loss in Gucha Sub-County, Kisii County, Kenya. The paper is based on a study that focused on household food-resource handling procedures and food security in Gucha Sub-County. Qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used to collect data on pre-harvesting variable and the effect of this variable on food loss and eventual food insecurity in the study area. The study found that pre-harvest conditions and actions in the field can directly or indirectly lead to food losses at later stages in the chain, as differences in production and agronomic practices can result in different quality at harvest, different suitability for transport and, different storage stability and different shelf-life after harvest. In this regard, pre-harvest phase helps us in understanding the level of preparedness of the smallholder farmer in the next step, which is harvesting. It is the observation of the study that, if pre- harvesting is done well before the actual harvest, and smallholder farmers have knowledge on how to avoid pre-harvest losses, less food is going to be lost at harvest thus countering food insecurity.