Maize, beans, peas, sorghum, millet and wheat are core to food security, poverty reduction and financial independence in many rural communities of Africa.  Lack of appropriate grain storage facilities result in significant post harvest significant losses.

women receiving maize at the TVT grain bank

Many factors contribute to the losses suffered by farmers in many rural communities of Africa and some of them are: lack of technology and proper storage exposes the grain to pests, such as weevils.  Farmers are forced to sell their farm produce when the prices are very low and this undermines their effort to make money and compromises their food security efforts.

It impacts negatively on rural development due to inability to take advantage of value addition opportunities for the grains. The TVT grain bank will not only offer storage facility to the  rural communities, especially members of women groups supported by TVT, but it will also offer saving opportunities  with ability to access credit on the strength of the  grains  stored at the  TVT grain Bank.

Initially this  facility  will have the  capacity to tore up to 100,000-300,000 kgs of grain and  it will be  organized in such as way that even farmers with very small quantities are given the  chance to safe their grains for better prices in future. 

Yes, a grain Bank will not only enable the women to realized high profit margin from the sale of their produce but will also reduce wastage resulting from poor storage and contribute to food security. The other benefits will include easy access to cheap farming input on credit basis and loan advanced to them using their stored grain as security.

The ultimate goal of the grain Bank is to cushion farmers who are prone to selling their produce soon after harvesting to meet their urgent financial needs.

 TVT Community Grain Bank

TVT community grain bank facility will contribute to fight against exploitation by middle men and also provide a saving mechanism for the people. People can also borrow money against their grains in store in case of emergencies. TVT community grain bank will therefore contribute immensely to Community Empowerment.