Professor Rick J Hodges
+44 (0)1634 88 3199
Professor Rick Hodges has worked for the Natural Resources Institute, and its predecessor organisations, for thirty five years. He is a specialist in the postharvest management of durable agricultural commodities and for six years was as a full-time commodity management advisor to grain marketing boards in West Africa (Mali) and South East Asia (Indonesia). In 1998, Rick was appointed Reader in Postharvest Entomology and since partial retirement in 2012 he has continued as Visiting Professor of Grain Postharvest Management, dividing his time between food postharvest issues in developing countries and, on a voluntary basis, wildlife conservation in the UK.
Rick Hodges has managed many research and development programmes to improve methods of grain preservation and pest control in the storage systems of subsistence farmers, traders and in large depots. He has authored around 100 scientific publications on grain storage and storage pest management and has been an author and editor of the NRI volumes on Crop Post-Harvest Science and Technology, published by Blackwell Science. He has an active interest in teaching and training at levels ranging from store keepers to students studying for higher degrees, and manages two masters courses 'Postharvest Technology and Economics' and 'Conservation Ecology'.
Rick Hodges advises the UN World Food Programme (WFP) on commodity quality and maintenance and for the World Bank in 2011 led a review of opportunities for grain postharvest loss reduction in Africa (the 'Missing Food' report). He recently addressed the 'UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development' on the opportunities provided by reducing cereal postharvest losses in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Key words: agriculture, postharvest, Sub-Saharan Africa, postharvest losses, grain storage, storage entomology, stock protection, grain quality
Rick Hodges research interests relate to the preservation of grain in developing countries, along the value chain from farmers to central warehousing. Initially taking a largely entomological approach to the problem of the larger grain borer (Prostephanus truncatus) in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, his interests broadened into a variety of grain quality management options with reduced environmental impacts such as the use of synthetic semiochemicals to manage pest by modifying their behaviour, rationalisation of the use of contact insecticides, improvement in the timing and efficiency of phosphine fumigation, carbon dioxide fumigation in large silos cells, and sealed-stack storage. Since the 2006/2007 food crisis his interests have been focused on postharvest loss reduction as a resource efficient means of improving food availability. An important contribution to this has been the development of the African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) together with approaches to loss assessment that integrate with APHLIS. For the future this development offers real potential as a significant element in a community of practice devoted to enhancing food security and the livelihoods of smallholder producers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Hodges, R.J., and Stathers, T.E. (2013) Facing the food crisis: how African smallholders can reduce postharvest cereal losses by supplying better quality grain. Outlooks on Pest Management, 24, 1-5.
- Hodges, R.J,. and Kirunda, H. (2013) Postharvest management on the farm. In: CTA and EAGC, Structured grain trading systems in Africa. Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, Wageningen and Eastern Africa Grain Council, Nairobi. Pp. 11-22
- Hodges, R.J., Bennett, B., Bernard, M., and Rembold, F. (2013) Tackling postharvest cereal losses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rural21 47 (1) 16-18.
- Hodges, Richard and Stathers, Tanya (2012) Training Manual for Improving Grain Postharvest Handling and Storage. UN World Food Programme / Natural Resources Institute.
- Rembold, F., Hodges, R., Bernard, M., Knipschild, H. and Léo, O. (2011) The African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS): an innovative framework to analyse and compute quantitative postharvest losses for cereals under different farming and environmental conditions in East and Southern Africa. Project Report. Publications Office of the European Union / European Commission - Joint Research Centre - Institute of Environment and Sustainability (JRC-IES), Luxembourg. (doi:10.2788/40345)
- World Bank (2011) Missing Food: The case of postharvest grain losses in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank Report No. 60371-AFR. World Bank, Washington , USA. Pp. 96. (based on material prepared by Hodges, R.J., Bennett, C., Stathers, T., and Mwebase, P.)
- Hodges, R.J., Buzby, J.C. and Bennett, B. (2011) Postharvest losses and waste in developed and less developed countries: opportunities to improve resource use. The Journal of Agricultural Science, 149 (S1). pp. 37-45. ISSN 0021-8596 (print), 1469-5146 (online) (doi:10.1017/S0021859610000936)
- Stewart-Jones, A., Stirrup, T.J., Hodges, R.J., Farman, D.I. and Hall, D.R. (2009) Analysis of free fatty acids in food substrates and in the dust and frass of stored-product pests: Potential for species discrimination? Journal of Stored Products Research, 45 (2). pp. 119-124. ISSN 0022-474X (doi:10.1016/j.jspr.2008.10.003)
- Nguyen, Duong T., Hodges, Rick J. and Belmain, Steven R. (2008) Do walking Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) locate cereal hosts by chance? Journal of Stored Products Research, 44 (1). pp. 90-99. ISSN 0022-474X (doi:10.1016/j.jspr.2007.06.008)
- Walker, D.J., Hodges, R.J., and Wanderschneider, T. (2007) Local and regional food aid procurement: development impact and implications for future policy. In: Hout W. (Ed.) EU Development Policy and Poverty Reduction. The International Political Economy of New regionalisms Series. Asggate Publishing Ltd, UK. pp. 85-100.
- Stewart-Jones, A., Hodges, Rick, Farman, Dudley I. and Hall, David R. (2006) Solvent extraction of cues in the dust and frass of Prostephanus truncatus and analysis of behavioural mechanisms leading to arrestment of the predator Teretrius nigrescens. Physiological Entomology, 31 (1). pp. 63-72. ISSN 0307-6962 (doi:10.1111/j.1365-3032.2005.00488.x)
- Hodges, R.J. and Farrell, G. (2004) (Eds) Crop Post-harvest: Science and Technology. Volume 2 Durables. Case studies in the handling and storage of durable commodities. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK. pp. 264
- Hodges, R.J., Addo, S., and Birkinshaw, L.A. (2003) Can observation of climatic variables be used to predict the flight dispersal rates of Prostephanus truncatus? Agricultural and Forest Entomology 5, 123-135.
- Bashir, T., Hodges, R.J., Birkinshaw, L.A., Hall, D.R., and Farman, D.I. (2003) Phenotypic plasticity of Rhyzopertha dominica pheromone signalling: the effects of different hosts and presence of conspecific females on male produced aggregation pheromone. Journal of Chemical Ecology 29 (4), 945-959.
- Hodges, R.J., Birkinshaw, L.A., Farman, D.I., and Hall D.R. (2002) Inter-male variation in aggregation-pheromone release in Prostephanus truncatus. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 28 (8), 1665-1674.
- Hodges, R.J. (2002) Detection and monitoring of the larger grain borer, Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae). Integrated Pest management Reviews 7, 223-243.
- Tyler, P.S., and Hodges, R.J. (2002) Phytosanitary measures against Larger Grain Borer, Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae), in international trade. Integrated Pest management Reviews 7, 279-289.
- Hodges, R.J., and Surendro (1996) Detection of controlled atmosphere changes in CO2-flushed sealed enclosures for pest and quality management of bagged milled rice. Journal of Stored Products Research, 32 (1), 97-104.
- Hodges, R.J., Sidik, M., Halid, H., and Conway, J.A. (1992) Cost efficiency of respraying store surfaces with insecticide to protect bagged milled rice from insect attack. Tropical Pest Management, 38(4), 391-397.
- Hodges, R.J. (1986) The biology and control of Prostephanus truncatus - a destructive pest with an increasing range. Journal of Stored Products Research, 22 (1), 1-14.
- Hodges, R.J., Benton, F., Hall, D.R., and dos Santos Serodio (1984) Control of Ephestia cautella (Walker) by synthetic sex pheromones in the laboratory and store. Journal of Stored Products Research, 20 (4), 191-197.
- Hodges, R.J., Dunstan, W.R., Magazini, I., and Golob, P. (1983) An outbreak of Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) in East Africa. Protection Ecology, 5, 1983-194.
- Editorial board of the Journal of Stored Products Research
- Secretary for the Group for Assistance on Systems Relating to Grain After Harvest (GASGA) and the Global Postharvest Forum (PhAction) (1994-2004)
- Representing the UK Department for International Development on the EC's ERA-NET on Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) (2007-2010)
