Assessing Drivers of Storage Decision-Making to Prevent Postharvest Loss Among Smallholder Ginger Farmers in Palpa District, Nepal

Postharvest losses erode Nepal’s ginger value chain and farm incomes, affecting food and income security; yet the behavioral drivers of loss-reducing practices remain poorly understood. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 256 ginger-growing farmers randomly selected from Bagnaskali, Ribdikot, and Tansen municipalities in the Palpa district, using a structured questionnaire. A semi-log OLS model of the percentage of crop loss was evaluated to understand the factors affecting postharvest loss, and a logit model of willingness to adopt improved storage was used to investigate the drivers of willingness to adopt improved technologies. Household demographics, farm, and institutional covariates were included. Farmers reported losing an average of 27.8% of harvested ginger. Using a polypropylene sack and receiving extension advice lowered those losses by 39.7%. Additionally, membership in group-saving schemes and women’s associations increased the odds of adopting improved storage by a factor of 5 and 21-fold, respectively. In contrast, receipt of an input subsidy decreases the odds of adoption by 32% ceteris paribus. The study concludes that leveraging social capital channels (particularly women-led associations and rotating savings groups) could sharply curb ginger losses, while indiscriminate subsidies may dampen storage incentives. Scaling participatory extension that couples hands-on advice with low-cost sack technology offers a practical first step. Future research should test these relationships across Nepal’s diverse agroecologies and incorporate climatic and market-infrastructure variables to refine policy design.