To cut down on post-harvest losses, Stephan and Rachel Bleyer, a German-based couple, is installing a solar-powered cooling chamber. He added besides offering a place for farmers to safely store their produce, the cooling chamber will allow the community to aggregate and access common markets, thereby avoiding exploitation by brokers. But with a cooling facility, the vegetables, herbs and spices can be allowed time to cool-off and reduce post-harvest losses,” she said. Zachariah Mwaka said the installation of the cooling facility was timely. He urged the national and county government to install such facilities in other high horticultural producing semi-arid areas to cushion farmers from losses.

Source: The Star October 27, 2020 02:01 UTC