Post-Harvest Innovation cluster Roots Tubers and Bananas CRP

8-9 June 2017. Entebbe, Uganda. To launch the Post-Harvest Innovation cluster, more than 20 researchers from 11 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe came together to share experiences and develop a joint vision and research for development agenda that will guide their collaboration over the coming years.

The Roots Tubers and Bananas CRP is structured around five flagship projects, each of which is comprised of a number of research teams, known as ‘clusters’.

The team investigated the myriad technical, environmental, social and economic dimensions to fully understand the opportunities, scope and potential impacts of postharvest interventions. Shared post-harvest challenges for RTB crops, such as post-harvest losses and waste product management, will be approached from a cross-crop perspective. The cluster will also undertake research in post-harvest management, storage, and processing of banana, potato and yam and support research for cassava and sweetpotato that is conducted in collaboration with other research teams.

“Roots, tubers and bananas share several post-harvest challenges, such as their perishability, bulkiness, and comparatively narrow range of utilization. They also share an enormous potential for expanding and diversifying their use in new markets including in urban fresh food markets and in commercial processing. Progress in these areas can be greatly accelerated by researchers and private sector partners working together across different RTB crops that share similar challenges and opportunities,” Simon Heck

Participants came from IITA, the International Potato Center,Bioversity International, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, Natural Resources Institute and government partners from Uganda and Nigeria, and included food scientists, breeders, market economists, agronomists, nutritionists and social scientists with ongoing research work on banana, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, and yam.