Post-Harvest Management to Improve Livelihoods

Results achieved as of March 2013 include: (i) establishing a Bachelor of Science program and a Master’s program in Post-Harvest Management at the Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (JUCAVM) with 234 undergraduate (B.Sc.) and graduate (M.Sc.) students (72 women 162 men) enrolled; (ii) providing 681 JUCAVM instructors faculty members graduate students and trainees (156 women 525 men) with 21 short-term training sessions delivered by Dalhousie University and McGill University experts; (iii) creating the first post-harvest management and value-added agriculture network (including six universities one government agency five industry representatives and one non-governmental organization) and launching a network website on post-harvest management; (iv) convening the first “Post-Harvest Management and Technology for Food Security” International Conference in Jimma Ethiopia in May 2012 attracting over 200 participants from nine countries; (v) training faculty and graduate students on topics such as waste and by-product management food quality assurance and processing; and (vi) fully equipping the University’s laboratory for Post-Harvest Management. These results are contributing to improving the ability of JUCAVM to provide high quality training in post-harvest management.