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Reducing Food Losses & Waste: Postharvest Workshop in Tanzania

Support a 5 day hands-on workshop on reducing postharvest losses/food waste for young horticultural trainers from Africa and South Asia

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Reducing Food Losses & Waste: Postharvest Workshop in Tanzania

Reducing Food Losses & Waste: Postharvest Workshop in Tanzania

Reducing Food Losses & Waste: Postharvest Workshop in Tanzania

Reducing Food Losses & Waste: Postharvest Workshop in Tanzania

Reducing Food Losses & Waste: Postharvest Workshop in Tanzania

Support a 5 day hands-on workshop on reducing postharvest losses/food waste for young horticultural trainers from Africa and South Asia

Support a 5 day hands-on workshop on reducing postharvest losses/food waste for young horticultural trainers from Africa and South Asia

Support a 5 day hands-on workshop on reducing postharvest losses/food waste for young horticultural trainers from Africa and South Asia

Support a 5 day hands-on workshop on reducing postharvest losses/food waste for young horticultural trainers from Africa and South Asia

Lisa Kitinoja
Lisa Kitinoja
Lisa Kitinoja
Lisa Kitinoja
3 Campaigns |
La Pine, United States
$3,376 USD 29 backers
16% of $20,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Choose your Perk

Thank You Note

$10 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
1 claimed

Sticker

$25 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
4 claimed

Digital Slide Show

$50 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
2 claimed

CD of postharvest stuff

$100 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
3 claimed

PEF Tote Bag

$250 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
0 out of 50 of claimed

Postharvest Tool Kit

$400 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
0 out of 10 of claimed

PEF T-Shirt

$500 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
0 out of 20 of claimed

PEF embroidered hoodie

$1,000 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
1 out of 10 of claimed

Airfare for one trainee

$1,000 USD
Est. Shipping
February 2014
0 out of 10 of claimed
Highlights
Mountain Filled 3 Projects Mountain Filled 3 Projects

Reducing Food Losses & Waste:  Postharvest Workshop in Tanzania


My name is Lisa Kitinoja (LK) and I am the workshop leader and the creator of The Postharvest Education Foundation project here on indiegogo.  I need your help to bring 10 to 20 young people to Arusha, Tanzania in February 2014 for a unique hands-on learning experience.

The Postharvest Education Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to horticulture, education and reducing global food losses.

“Postharvest handling” involves all the steps along the foods system from harvesting to marketing – we teach about when to harvest, how to keep foods safe to eat, how to clean, pack and store fresh foods, how to process perishable foods into products with longer shelf life, and much more.  You can learn more about our foundation, this postharvest training event in Tanzania and our indiegogo project by visiting our website (www.postharvest.org) and by reading the description below.  You can donate funds to purchase a tool kit for one of our e-learners, or sponsor a trip for one trainee.  Scroll toward the bottom of our page to see images of the rewards we can offer to anyone making a donation.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Food waste is one of the biggest agricultural and environmental problems that you have never heard about. The amount of food that is thrown away in the world is simply staggering.  I have been working since the 1980s on improved postharvest handling practices for small scale farmers, and lately with a variety of think-tanks and international organizations to document the problem of postharvest losses and food waste and figure out what we can do about it.  In the USA we generate more than 34 million tons of food waste each year. Studies that I have worked on in recent years have shown that developing countries lose 30 to 80% of their perishable foods (fruits, vegetables, root crops) before consumption, and with these enormous losses, we also waste a lot of the land and water, fertilizer, labor and money that went into food production.  You can watch this short UN FAO video for a quick explanation of global food losses and waste and what we can do about reducing the waste of the food we grow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCVrkcaH6Q

The Postharvest Education Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that is training young people in developing countries to tackle these problems in their own countries, by working directly with farmers, food traders and marketers, and providing information, demonstrations and education in their own local languages. So far, in the 3 years we have been in existence, we’ve provided long-term, intensive training for more than 50 people from 17 different countries.  We use a written training manual (available in 11 languages) and fieldwork assignments to make sure our trainees gain practical, hands-on experience.

Kitinoja, L. and Kader, A.A. (2003).  Small-Scale Postharvest Practices: A Manual for Horticultural Crops, 4th edition.  University of California, Davis. 196 pp. This manual has been translated into Arabic, French, Spanish, Punjabi, Chinese, Vietnamese, Afrikaans, Indonesian and several other languages. (You can download the small scale postharvest manual in English: http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-1450.pdf)

PEF has been featured in several news articles and publications as an organization that is providing practical training and extension programs, and helping e-learners to improve their job skills and technical expertise:

Food Tank (www.foodtank.org) featured PEF in a June 2013 post on their website:

21 Inspiring Initiatives Working to Reduce Food Waste Around the World

http://foodtank.org/news/2013/06/twenty-one-inspiring-initiatives-working-to-reduce-food-waste-around-the-wo

World Resources Institute (www.wri.org) mentioned PEF postharvest training programs in their June 2013 publication: Creating a sustainable food future- reducing food loss and waste http://pdf.wri.org/reducing_food_loss_and_waste.pdf

Our innovative “Global postharvest e-learning” program takes more than a year to complete, and the reward that we would like to offer the trainees who successfully complete this year’s PEF 2013 Global program is the chance to attend a hands-on postharvest workshop in northern Tanzania.

We are training these young people via low cost internet based programs, with assignments, readings, fieldwork and written reports that can be submitted by email, with the hope that the knowledge and skills they gain will go a long way toward solving food loss and waste problems.  Last year’s e-learning program graduates already have been providing training in their own countries (see below for some examples from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana and Bangladesh). 

This year’s e-learners are located in 12 different countries, from Bhutan to Uganda.  The workshop we are planning to hold in Tanzania will give our trainees the opportunity to meet one another in person for the first time, and to work with me and with Lizanne Wheeler, who is one of our fantastic PEF volunteer postharvest trainers. Last year’s two workshops, held in Arusha and in India, cost more than $35,000 for 22 participants.  This year, in order to pay some of the high costs for the training materials and travel expenses, we could really use your help.


Lizanne and LK in Arusha (August 2013)—in the background of this photo is the Zero Energy Cool Chamber (ZECC) that Lizanne constructed with the participants during a postharvest training program held recently at the Postharvest Training and Services Center (PTSC) at the World Vegetable Center.

OUR PLANNED FEB 2014 POSTHARVEST TRAINING WORKSHOP

We have developed a 5 day program to be offered February 17-22, 2014.  The first three days will be held at the wonderful Mkuru Training Camp (MTC) about one hour away from Arusha, Tanzania.  Mkuru is in the Maasai lands in Northern Tanzania, near Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru.  The people of the community enjoy a variety of learning experiences at the MTC, from nutrition classes and animal raising programs to hosting beading retreats for tourists.  There our PEF trainees will review their e-learning experiences, get their postharvest tool kits (a set of simple tools for quality assessment, training and loss assessment, valued at $400). Then we will set up and provide a one day practical training program for a group of Maasai women who are learning via an OIKOS sponsored project (an Italian NGO) to grow, handle, pack and market organic vegetables.  The last two days of the workshop will be spent in and around Arusha, where we will visit the Postharvest Training and Services Center (PTSC) at AVRDC, the Njiro postharvest shop and training center (managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security), the Tanzania Farm Association store and the local produce markets (wholesale and retail).

Lizanne Wheeler training the trainers at the PTSC in Arusha (August 2013)



Hala Chahine (PEF Board member) teaching about food processing and storage in Tanzania


Here are some details on some of our top past postharvest e-learners.  Eight of our Global e-learners came from African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia) and attended a workshop in Tanzania in Feb 2013. Fourteen of our e-learners from South Asian countries (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal) came to India for a postharvest workshop in August 2013. But many of our e-learners could not attend, since we didn't have enough funds to bring them all to these workshops.

 Mekbib Seife Hilgebrile (Ethiopia)

Mekbib works on farmer training programs in the Afar region of Ethiopia. This past year he was awarded a grant for his research and extension work on par-boiling rice to reduce losses, and a fellowship that provided him with the opportunity to visit UC Davis in June 2012

 Pamela Anfu-Babington (Ghana)

Pamela is working with a team of her fellow e-learning graduates from Ghana on designing and implementing a new postharvest workshop for fruit and vegetable farmers in Accra.

 Theavy Srey (Cambodia)

Theavy Srey works at the Royal Agricultural University in Cambodia with 3 of her fellow PEF e-learning graduates – together they’re developing a variety of postharvest demonstrations and training programs for local hort producers and extension workers.

 Faruq Bin Hossain (Bangladesh)

Faruq works at BARI in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he specializes in developing tools and equipment for improving postharvest handling, pest treatments and storage practices. He is currently making plans to develop a “postharvest village” where farmers can learn about improved food handling, storage and marketing.


We have more than 20 e-learners enrolled in this year’s program and we would like to be able to invite them all to the Feb 2014 workshop in Tanzania. 

This year’s PEF 2013 Global e-learners include:

Vumilia Zikankuba (Tanania)

James Armachius (Tanzania)

Odeyemi Olubukola (Nigeria)

Xiangchun Meng (China)

Jacinta Nyaika (Malawi)

Fanny Ipinge (Botswana)

Jimba Dorji (Bhutan)

Passang Wangdi (Bhutan)

Radegunda Kessy (Tanzania)

Muyomba Wilberforce (Uganda)

Dr. Surajit Mitra (West Bengal, India)

Dr. V.K. Kauthal (India)


HOW YOU CAN HELP

For the past three years we have been providing a variety of educational programs without any compensation for our time (and often our instructors have had to travel at their own expense). This year we’re in need of funds to help us to pay for the travel expenses (hotels, food and airfares) for some of our trainees, who will be coming from many different developing countries to Tanzania.

You can help by clicking "Contribute Now" and pledge your donation. You will be asked to enter your pledge amount, choose to purchase a tool kit or sponsor an e-learner, and select a reward. You can use a credit or debit card to make the donation.

THE REWARDS 

Here are a few of the rewards that you can get by pledging to support The Postharvest Education Foundation’s indiegogo project. All gifts will be sent in March 2014, and if you prefer not to receive a gift, you can opt out.

All donors will receive a signed thank you note from our PEF e-learners (sent by snail mail after the workshop is completed). (Pledge $10 or more to get this reward)

A large sticker with the logo of PEF plus a signed thank you note from our PEF e-learners (sent by snail mail after the workshop is completed). (Pledge $25 or more to get this reward)

A personalized digital slide show of our February 2014 postharvest workshop that you can share with your family and friends (Pledge $50 or more to get this reward)

A CD full of our most popular postharvest training materials, reference manuals and e-books (Pledge $100 or more to get this reward plus a personalized digital slide show and a signed thank you note)

A tote bag with the logo of The Postharvest Education Foundation (Pledge $250 or more to get this reward plus a CD of training materials, a personalized digital slide show and a signed thank you note)


A T-shirt with the logo of The Postharvest Education Foundation (Pledge $500 or more to get this reward plus a tote bag, a CD of our postharvest training materials, a personalized digital slide show and a signed thank you note)


An embroidered navy blue hoodie sweatshirt (Pledge $1000 or more to get this reward plus a T-shirt, a tote bag, a CD of our postharvest training materials, a personalized digital slide show and a signed thank you note)


HELP US TO SPREAD THE WORD

You can also support us by spreading the word about our project. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or send an email with the site URL to your friends and family.

Website: WWW.POSTHARVEST.ORG

FACEBOOK:  facebook.com/PostharvestEducationFdn

TWITTER @PostharvestOrg

HAVE A QUESTION?  Send Lisa an email at kitinoja@postharvest.org


Interested in joining us in this kind of learning experience?:  Next year’s program is open for applications:

Please visit these web pages for the agenda and downloadable application form.

AGENDA

http://postharvest.org/AGENDA%202014Training_materials_Postharvest_E-learning%20PEF.pdf

APPLICATION

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5xzz3hIIS3qTERqVldyTk9kc1k/edit?usp=sharing

Deadline for submission of applications: December 31, 2013


PREPARATION ISSUES and RISKS

Each of our trainees will need to obtain a travel visa in order to travel to Tanzania, and applications/preparations will need to begin as soon as possible.

Lizanne and I will be carrying the postharvest tool kits to Tanzania in our checked luggage, so we need to make these purchases as soon as possible and we will need to pay extra baggage fees for our US and international flights.   



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