Annex


The On-Farm Grain Storage Project
PURPOSES
The On-Farm Grain Storage Project is concerned with the needs of the
small farmers in Kenya. It introduces them to improved post-harvest
techniques which can dramatically reduce their maize crop losses.
The project is sponsored by the Government of Kenya through the
Ministry of Agriculture, and is funded by the US Agency for Interna-
tional Development. It is implemented by DPRA, Inc. of the USA.
DPRA has a team of two extension specialists and a grain storage
specialist based in Kenya. This team works with Ministry of Agricul-
ture counterparts who are trained for post-harvest specialisms-and
with the Ministry's extension service operating in the areas covered by
the project.
In 1983 the project was established in the two western provinces of
Nyanza and Western, both major maize growing areas, where the bulk
of production is from small-scale farms.
On such farms, there are serious losses after grain has reached
physiological maturity. These losses occur when the grain is still in the
fields, when it is being dried and when it is stored in traditional cribs
or baskets. The losses can be as much as 30% of the potential harvest.
They are the result of attacks by insects, birds and rodents or con-
tamination by mould. When farmers lose four or five bags of maize out
of each twenty it is the equivalent of losing between 20 to 25% of their
gross income. Either they lose a potential profit or they lose the money
they have to spend to buy additional grain for their own families to eat.