Traditional domestic knowledge and skills in post-harvest processes: a focus on food crop storage.

This chapter discusses the complex knowledge and skills that inform smallholder on-farm storage systems: an under researched topic. Contrary to popular negative assumptions, losses are low. The methods used are effective and sustainable, and appropriate to small farmers, representing long-term adaptations through interaction between local environmental, cultural and socio-economic circumstances. The chapter outlines the complex management of these systems by women, largely as part of their domestic responsibilities, whose practices reflect knowledge of pests and diseases, and plant physical and chemical properties - knowledge that agrees with scientific knowledge. These systems promote food security and resilience, and contribute to the conservation of crop biodiversity. Measures are needed to prevent erosion or loss of associated complex knowledge.