By Prossy Nandudu
Grain farmers, traders, and producers are to interface with large-scale processors, buyers, and exporters of grains from the continent at the forthcoming 10th African Grain Summit.
The summit takes place in Kampala Uganda from the 5th to the 7th of October at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala under the theme ‘Defining Africa’s Place in Global Grain Trade for Sustainable Food Systems’.
The interface will take place in a special matchmaking session between buyers and producers.
In this session, buyers will explain to producers, the quality and amounts of grains needed but also how these can be handled to meet the required standards.
The summit is a high-level, international grain industry conference that convenes business leaders, policymakers, and other critical stakeholders from across Africa and beyond for discussions about key issues and emerging trends pertinent to the grain sector.
Other issues to be discussed at the summit include technological advancements in the grain sector, in areas of soil health, and solutions for quality grains among others.
Whereas Uganda is known for high agricultural yields, most of the food is left to waste through poor handling.
According to Economic Policy Research Centre (Uganda) food losses and wastages arise mainly due to poor post-harvest handling practices and through the absence of adequate and appropriate food infrastructure in harvest and post-harvest systems.
For example, during the preparation stages (poor drying leading to high moisture content) storage, transportation, and processing.
It is also recorded that majority of the farmers still use rudimentary methods like drying on uncovered ground, storage in sacks or pouring on ground, hand shelling, or beating. Drying and storing on ground makes agricultural produce susceptible to discoloration, and contamination with foreign matter, termite damage, mold, and debris.
Storage in inappropriate materials (non-hermetic bags) like bags/sacks makes the stored produce vulnerable to storage pests (like rodents, weevils, termites), contamination by mold and aflatoxin, and insect frass.
