Enhancing child nutrition and livelihoods of rural households in Malawi and Tanzania through post-harvest value-chain technology improvements in groundnuts

CCRP projects

»Andes CoP

-select a project- ---------------------- CURRENT PROJECTS 09-022: Andean pests 09-025: Climate risk management 09-029: Native potato seed systems 09-033: Agrobiodiversity and nutrition 09-168: Food security 09-169: Communal ag. risk mgt. 09-1100: On-farm conservation 09-1203: Quinoa sustainability 09-1204: Quinoa II 10-867: Andean grains II 10-880: Organic groundnut II 10-881: Water security II 11-381: Sustainable agriculture 11-382: Community baskets II 11-405: Lupine pest management ---------------------- PAST PROJECTS 01-1563: Andean tubers (Peru) 05-112: Biodiversity and soil 05-112: Cover agriculture 05-112: Green manures/legumes 05-112: Lupin/quinoa 05-112: Native potato 05-112: Potato moth 05-112: Seed systems 06-016: Quinoa 07-702: Nutrition support 07-1209: Soil nutrient budgets 09-005: Organic groundnut 09-016: Andean grains 09-032: Water security 09-170: Self-sufficiency 09-181: Biopesticide/potato moth 09-955: Community baskets

»East & Horn of Africa CoP

-select a project- ---------------------- CURRENT PROJECTS 08-019: Sweetpotato breeding 09-460: Chickpea/banana 09-480: Cowpea 09-500: Banana Xanthomonas wilt 09-517: Grain amaranth 09-595: Semi-arid AEI 10-333: Sorghum 10-401: Finger millet II 10-423: Tef II 10-473: Legumes 10-689: Napier stunt 10-690: Participatory video 11-283: Enset bacterial wilt 11-404: Biochar ---------------------- PAST PROJECTS 06-447: Cereal roots 06-448: Tef/finger millet

»Southern Africa CoP

-select a project- ---------------------- CURRENT PROJECTS 09-262: Groundnut PHVC 09-273: Bruchid management 09-297: Botanical pesticides/legumes 09-1086: P-efficient legumes II 09-1206: Cowpea/Alectra II 09-1207: Groundnut breeding II 09-1231: Legume best bets II 10-531: Bean seed II 10-713: Climbing beans II 10-714: Bambara groundnuts II 10-889: PV groundnut ---------------------- PAST PROJECTS 05-780: P-efficient legumes 06-740: Legume best bets 06-741: Cowpea/Alectra 06-742: Groundnut breeding 06-743: Bean seed 06-744: Climbing beans 09-298: Soil fertility mgt. 09-299: Bambara groundnuts

»West Africa CoP

-select a project- ---------------------- CURRENT PROJECTS 09-036: GIMEM 09-451: P-efficient cowpea 09-465: Technology introduction 09-495: Orange-fleshed sweetpotato 10-134: Sorghum/millet II 10-135: Seed systems II 10-140: An Be Jigi II 10-231: Soil/water manag. 10-332: Fonio 11-599: Sorghum/millet proc.II 11-600: Bambara productivity II ---------------------- PAST PROJECTS 05-009: Sweetpotato 06-011: Insect pest management 06-012: Nutrition 06-013: Grain legumes 06-014: Sorghum/millet improv. 06-015: Seed systems 09-437: Bambara productivity 09-450: Sorghum/millet proc.

»Non-CoP projects

-select a project- ---------------------- PAST PROJECTS 00-1071: Milpa 01-1564: Wheat scab 02-026: Wolbachia 02-027: Chickpea 02-246: Indigenous vegetables 02-460: Potato 02-476: Sweetpotato diversity 02-644: Finger millet 02-778: Legumes 05-781: Rice biodiversity

Project leader

Bert Rivers, Compatible Technology International (CTI)

Funding dates

8/29/2009-8/28/2013

Previous/current project phases

Overview

One quarter to one third of under five year olds remain malnourished in Malawi and Tanzania despite improvements in farmer access to improved crop cultivars and production technologies. With complimentary foods based on starchy staples, protein energy malnutrition remains widespread and particular problem for infants over six months old. By formulating and testing legume rich complimentary foods and encouraging village-based enterprises to prepare and sell these the project will complement on-going investments by CCRP in southern Africa to increase legume production and productivity as a strategy to enhance nutrition of the poor and vulnerable. The project also investigates the need for inexpensive, labour saving tools for post-harvest handling and processing of groundnuts. SMEs that fabricate agricultural tools will be provided with support to make prototypes of new tools for testing and with business plans to undertake manufacture and promotion to groundnut farmers so precluding the need to import equipment. The project is implemented by Compatible Technologies Incorporated CTI) of St. Paul, USA, in partnership with ICRISAT (Malawi) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania).

Regional Strategy

The project aims at identifying major challenges faced during the harvesting and post-harvesting processes of groundnuts in order to develop technologies that will address yield losses in both quality and quantity but also reduce labor.

Project aim and results

• Marked reduction in post-harvest losses of groundnuts and increased quality (physical, aflatoxin infection, marketable value);
• Measurable improvements in nutrition of children under five children;
• Significantly increased incomes of groundnut farmers, especially women;
• Increased labor productivity in post-harvest operations for women, including reduced physical drudgery;
• Strengthened associative community-level organizations to support future development

New technology produced/knowledge achieved

• Protocol for complementary foods feeding study has been developed to improve the nutrition of children between 6 and 24 months through adoption of improved complementary foods using groundnuts and locally available cereals as base ingredients.
• Four complementary recipes based on groundnuts evaluated by 80 pilot mother for acceptability.
• Evaluation of hand-operated strippers, including on-farm tests in Malawi and Tanzania has found a “stationary screen” and “drum beater” models to be most effective and favored as it is easy to make with no moving parts nor requiring spare parts.

Project annual reports

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