BOOK REVIEW

Book Review

By Otsieno Namwaya

Horticultural Chain Management for Eastern and Southern Africa
Commonwealth Secretariat, London, United Kingdom, and Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome, Italy, 2008 – Theoretical Manual, 217 pages, and Practical Manual, 24 pages

This two – volume training manual contains several one hour theoretical and practical lessons of varied lengths aimed at guiding trainers. The chapters have been researched and written by several specialists, with contributions by staff from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and Commonwealth Secretariat, which were the two main sponsors of the project. The theoretical manual is meant to take the participants of the training through a gradual and progressive learning process, which is supported by a wide range of theoretical data from available literature and field experience of the writers.

"This manual provides the trainer with a platform of information that can be used to design and tailor – make courses that are applicable to the context in the respective country," notes a section on the background of the training package authored by L. Korsten. But Korsten has also been careful in this section to advise trainers to ensure that, while using the manual, they should keep abreast with the emerging trends in the market, which, of course, is customary in the world of academia. Written in simple NGO like language, both manuals are easy to read, although it can still be justifiably argued that an ordinary farmer in Eastern and Southern Africa region would need to be guided through. 

The practical manual, which is naturally meant to complement the theoretical manual, is designed in the book to offer the trainer tasks "that reinforce and enhance comprehension of the theoretical training on horticultural chain management". It contains briefly outlined sections of demonstrations, practical activities, field visits and problem solving challenges. Unlike the theoretical manual where it is indicated just how long the teaching of each topic should take, this is not the case with the practical manual, which may mean the trainers have a wide latitude on just how long each practical session should last.

The book contains guidelines on a wide range of topics, starting with just how to prepare for the training programme – complete with a sample-training programme – ensuring the effectiveness of such a programme, how to determine whether a training programme was effective as well as topics relating specifically to the current horticultural industry trends, ensuring the quality of the produce, infrastructural support systems and the good practices that can be adopted to maintain high quality produce.

While all the modules are designated as one hour lessons in the theoretical manual some like the one on consumer trends are too shot that it would be unlikely to last an hour unless it is interlaced with long participant discussions, while others such as the one on the effect of microbiological factors on quality are far too long that it would be difficult to summarise in an hour. A careful review of the modules shows that, as pointed out in the opening pages of the book, most can only pass as guidelines to an experienced trainer who would otherwise be required to add more flesh, for they do not really delve as deeply into the designated areas as would be expected.

But among the most notable is the section on consumer trends, which singles out health and diet; convenience and private supermarket labels as being the key factors that dominate international consumer trends on food. It is however also true that quality and food safety are, as has been well recognised in this book, major factors that influence consumer trends. In South Africa, for instance, the focus on health was the engine behind the growth of the country's fastest growing food categories – bottled water and Yoghurt. The setback here is however that only the wealthy consumers can afford the high price that comes with what are otherwise regarded as the healthy food products, as has been noted by H. Vermulen, D. Njie and R. Rolle who prepared the module on consumer trends.

Slightly more than half of the theoretical manual has been dedicated to discussing horticultural supply chain and the quality of horticultural products such as onions, tomatoes and potatoes among others. The writers have attempted to get into some detail on the factors that could affect the quality of the produce. This, according to writer L. Korsten, include the infectious plant diseases caused by living organisms such as fungi, bacteria, nematodes, prokaryotes, viruses, viroids, protozoa, arthropods and parasitic plants.

The manual has moved a step further and identified some of the key diseases or toxic substances that could undermine the quality of the produce, thus outlining some of the useful control measures such as use of spray, careful packaging and uprooting of the infected products. "Several common vegetables contain toxic substances. Potatoes contain the alkaloid solanine as well as arsenic and nitrite, while green leafy vegetables can contain toxic oxalates. In terms of human lives lost from phenols originating in plants, salicylate aspirin is probably the most dangerous," notes Korsten while writing on microbiological factors and their impact on quality.

Other than diseases, insect pests have equally been identified in the manual as having tremendous effect on the quality of horticultural produce. "Pests such as the Mediterranean fruit fly can seriously disrupt trade among countries. For effective quarantine, 100 percent pest control is required. In order to prevent the rejection of export consignments, it is therefore critical that countries implement effective insect quarantine measures for the eradication of insect pests," notes K Kruger, the author of the chapter on insect pests. Among the control measures discussed by Kruger for insect pests include chemical and physical control methods. The physical measures include cold sterilisation treatment and heat treatments. The writer goes ahead to discuss various alternative methods of post harvest treatment in what could pass as one of the longest modules of the theoretical training manual.

What the authors appear to endeavour to make clear, however, is that horticultural products are delicate and their handling at each stage may have serious impact on the quality of the end product and thus even affect the consumer. This then makes significant such processes as the tracing of the origin of the produce just in case it may be contaminated, and this is a precautionary measure to protect consumers. The other is, of course, the packaging and storage of the produce, which brings up the significance of pack houses. "Pack houses are facilities where fresh produce can be packed according to the customer's needs or can be sorted and separated for fresh marketing, juicing, drying or other processing needs,"

The theoretical manual concludes with a practical example on how well commercial pepper farmers can manage their crop and its produce. "Sweet peppers are highly susceptible to water loss, sunscald and heat damage in the post-harvest state. These problems are likely to occur if harvested peppers are allowed to sit for more than an hour in direct sunlight. Harvested peppers should, therefore, be immediately transferred to shade and cooled within a short time frame."