As part of its USDA funded McGovern-Dole Food For Education and Child Nutrition Program in Malawi, Nascent is training PTAs and Care Groups in its projects schools on Post-Harvest Loss prevention. A key element of Nascent’s loss prevention strategies is proper packaging and storage of grain harvests.

Hermetic grain storage bags offer an effective pesticide-free way to protect stored grain against fungal and insect infestation. However, widespread adoption of hermetic bags has been slow in most of Sub-Saharan Africa due to lack of technical information and the misconception that they are costly. With funding from USDA, a consortium comprising Nascent Solutions, Kansas State University’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Post-Harvest Loss, LUANAR (Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources) and others collaborated with Symon & Kendall to educate/enlighten farmers, PTAs and Care Groups through edutainment about the supremacy of hermetic bags over conventional bags for maintaining seed germinability, limiting insect infestation, reducing grain weight loss and damage among others.

The video below, is part of Nascent and partners’ comprehensive outreach to McGovern-Dole Program school PTAs, Care Groups and communities, in local languages, to build sustainable systems in agriculture, towards,  reducing losses, improving productivity, and building foundations for home-grown school feeding and sustainability. In the second half of 2023 Nascent will be distributing 400 hermetic bags and 35 moisture readers to PTAs and Care Groups in over 80 Nascent McGovern-Dole school communities to prevent post-harvest losses.