Post-harvest loss due to pests in dried cassava chips and comparative methods for its assessment
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No continent depends as much on root crops in feeding its population as does Africa. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) occupies an important position in Ghana's agricultural economy. Very little documentary evidence is available on the evaluation of current cassava post-harvest techniques and the magnitude of storage losses in the Northern Region of Ghana. This information is needed for the decision-making of small holders, as well as on the national level for the allocation of natural and fina ncial resources. Traditionally, the cassava root is simply left in the ground, but with population growth and decreasing agricultural land availability, the highly perishable cassava root is now harvested and immediately processed into dried cassava chips (kokonte) in the North of Ghana. Processing comprises peeling, slicing into pieces and sundrying for two to three weeks. The dried chips are stored for six to eight months depending on the consumption rate of the farm-family. The chips ar e particularly susceptible to attack by storage pests and to a lesser degree to by microbes and rodents. Very little is known about storage losses of cassava chips; consequently, well-established methods to assess storage losses, do not exist nor are there any reliable data on losses published in Ghana.