Sorghum is an important part of the traditional diet in many parts of the world, including the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana loses more than one tenth of its top four cereal - sorghum among them - produce to post-harvest losses every year. This is due to impediments along the entire value chain.
Faranaya Agribusiness Limited, in collaboration with the 2SCALE program, has introduced a technology called Dry Card for purposes of supporting sorghum farmers, aggregators and agribusinesses in the Upper East region of Ghana. The Dry Card technology comes in handy in the management of moisture content in grains. This will in turn reduce post-harvest losses.
The Dry Card contains a cobalt strip which when placed in grains at air-tight conditions, determines the moisture content. The cobalt strip changes colour according to the moisture content in the grains. The colour change is a simple enough method for most of the smallholder farmers to understand.
The technology was first developed by the Horticulture Innovations Lab under the Feed the Future Initiative.
The Dry Card technology comes at a time when experts are advocating for investing in post-harvest loss reduction with a view on enhancing food security. Furthermore, according to reports by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Bank, approximately 47% of the 940 billion USD needed to eradicate hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, will be required in the postharvest sector.
The Dry Card has been implemented for the first time in the northern parts of Ghana. This has proven to be useful for the smallholder farmers who were having challenges in determining moisture levels in grains before harvest and during storage. This is mostly because the farmers lack the means to purchase very expensive moisture metres in the market. As such, the Dry Card serves as an affordable option for the farmers. This results had improved grain quality for the market and increased income for the farmers.