For futher information contact: Carlos Chiito or Jhon Jairo Huratdo

Supporting Rural Technology

The search for the rural sector’s competitiveness implies positioning in the market for good quality products.  Moreover, demand from both urban and rural consumers is creating new opportunities for adding value by processing agricultural products into intermediate- or end-use goods.  The traditional rural agroindustry must improve its efficiency in production and product quality, modifying their presentation according to consumer demand.

New But Not Always Effective Technologies

In recent decades, significant investments have been made in the development of appropriate technologies for processing agricultural products. However, the commercial use of these technologies has been incipient. Moreover, many of these were complex or expensive, leading to, in many cases, scarce participation of clients (farmers or small agroentrepreneurs). Such indications suggest that the technologies developed did not necessarily conform to user needs.

Two factors, among others, contribute to this situation: the limited access to information of a technological and financial nature on alternative processing, and the way these technologies have been developed.

Lines of Action in Postharvest Technology

The RAD Project responds to the demand for information on better product processing and the need for technology transfer by:

• Developing a model of information systems on postharvest technologies; this model would facilitate selection of appropriate options.

• Developing participatoring methods to generate technologies for postharvest handling and processing to improve efficiency and product quality of existing rural agroindustries and for establishing new rural agroindustries.