NEWS:

26 Oct, 2016


Nyaika: proper farm packaging would reduce the postharvest losses in fresh produce as well as reduce microbial growth in fresh foods products
Jacinta Nyaika is one of the 2016 Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship Program awardees. The Borlaug fellowship promotes food security and economic growth by providing training and collaborative research opportunities to fellows from developing and middle-income countries. The program builds capacity in young scientists through a one to one mentorship program.

Jacinta has been attached at Iowa State University for 12 weeks and is being mentored by Dr Buddhi Lamsal from the Food Science and Human Nutrition Laboratory, Professor Ben Carl from the Agricultural Engineering department and Dr Ajay Nair from the Horticulture department.

During this program, Jacinta will be working on postharvest handling of tomato research. Specifically, she is working on finding the potential alternative cheap sources of sanitizers/disinfectants for prevention of postharvest microbial growth for tomato, which is the first most grown vegetable crop in Malawi. She decided to work on this area because she has been observing that in Malawi, most smallholder farmers do not wash and disinfect their produce after harvest with the right postharvest disinfectants. This results into postharvest diseases to be on the rise , as the field microbes still attack the produce whilst they are in storage and or on the Market. She also observed that some sellers apply field pesticides during storage or on the market, a conduct which poses life at risk as these would go through the food chain.

Miss Nyaika is also working on packaging quality of tomato and tomato products to enhance their shelf life. She realises that proper farm packaging would reduce the postharvest losses in fresh produce as well as reduce microbial growth in fresh foods products.


Compiled By: Patricia Nkhoma