Impact and factors determining choice of hermetic maize storage technology adoption on smallholder farmers’ income in Gatsibo District, Rwanda

The growing food demand occasioned by the rising global population is a major issue of global concern. It calls for an increase in food production to meet the global food demand. Studies have revealed that over 33% of the food produced globally get lost through post-harvest operations along the food supply chain. Lack of proper storage facilities and food handling practices are among the major causes of food losses. Reducing food losses using appropriate storage technologies is therefore important to curb food losses to ensure food and nutrition security. Thus, this study aimed to examine choices and the impact of adopting hermetic maize storage technologies (HST) on smallholder maize farmers’ income in Gatsibo district, Rwanda. using an endogenous switching regression (ESR) and multivariate probit model on 301 randomly selected smallholder maize farmers. The results revealed that only 41% were HST adopters. Membership in farmer groups, access to credit, the quantity of maize produced, access to training, and selling maize immediately after harvest were the major factors influencing farmers’ choices of alternative storage technologies. Overall, the adoption of HST had a positive and significant impact on income from stored maize among maize smallholder farmers. The study recommends that the government of Rwanda and other stakeholders should support the dissemination of HST to facilitate access. In addition, policies supporting the training of smallholder maize farmers on post-harvest loss reduction and facilitating smallholder farmers’ access to credit are highly recommended.