The world’s population is increasing at a rate never seen before and
is estimated to cross 9
billion by the year
2050. This will create an increasing demand for healthier food. According to
the United Nations’ World Food Programme, there is enough food in the world today for everyone
to lead a healthy and productive life. Despite this, the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) estimates that one
in nine people suffers from chronic undernourishment.
Almost all of these people live in underdeveloped and developing countries
with Sub-Saharan Africa accounting
for the highest prevalence of hunger and malnourishment in any region in the
world. The question, therefore, arises as to why hunger is still a relevant
issue when the world’s farmers are producing enough food to supply every human
on the planet.
Part of the answer lies in post-harvest food loss
In the fight against global hunger, we often put more emphasis on
improving pre-harvest crop production. However, there is an additional factor
that aggravates food security – Post-harvest
Loss (PHL). PHL is a collective food loss along the
production chain. It also translates into a waste of resources (land, water,
and nutrients) invested in crop production, and includes food thrown away by
consumers and retailers. According to the FAO, roughly one-third of
the food produced is lost on the journey from farm to fork.
PHL occurs at different stages of the food chain in
different geographies
While PHLs can occur at any stage of the food supply chain, the
extent of it varies significantly between countries. In industrialized nations
food is wasted to a great extent at the consumer level,
meaning that it is thrown away even if it is suitable for human consumption. In
underdeveloped and developing countries wastage of food usually occurs at
the producer
or farmer end of the supply chain. In these countries,
harvesting is mostly carried out by hand due to lack of technologies. These
manual harvesting methods contribute considerably towards loss in quantity
(physical weight loss) and quality (edibility, consumer acceptance and
nutritional quality) of crops, resulting in low level of yield per acre and
less income for farmers. Other factors that
can contribute to PHL include high crop perishability, inferior transportation,
poor packaging and storage, fungal and bacterial contamination, and invasion by
birds, rodents, and insects.
For example, let us consider the magnitude of PHLs for grains in
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Grains are one of the most important food staples in
Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a report by
the World Bank, PHLs in SSA can reach nearly US$4 billion a year out of an
annual value of grain production of US$27 billion. While there are solutions to
reduce PHL, the adoption of these technologies in Africa has been low. This can
be attributed to a perceived lack of economic incentives by farmers to reduce
such losses. In the area of smallholder farming, this kind of perception
seriously impairs the total earning capacity of farmers who live on the edge of
food security.
How to reduce PHL: Concerted collaborations and systemic
interventions
Critical agricultural challenges such as PHLs can be better
addressed when public-private or private-private partnerships are formed to
create shared economic benefits for smallholders and stakeholders. In 2013 the
Government of Ethiopia signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) with DuPont and the U.S. Agency for
International Development to help smallholders boost maize productivity and
reduce post-harvest loss. This MoU serves as an indicator that a collective
approach is required to root out food losses at each stage of the chain. In
order to derive the most value out of such systemic interventions, governments,
research bodies, input providers, distributors, retailers and other players
should work collaboratively to impart best management practices to
smallholders, develop more strong linkages between farmers and markets, improve
storage and transportation, and support R&D of new technologies.
Strategic partnerships between large firms and technology start-ups
should also be the order of the day for solving PHL issues. Exosect, a
University of Southampton spin-off,
has developed a wax-based technology called Entostat to
deliver a fungal organism (Beauveria bassiana) to control pests in
stored grains. In 2014 the company announced the submission of B.
bassiana to the European Union regulatory authorities. Another
start-up called Save Indian Grain. Org that
describes itself as a social enterprise has designed galvanized steel farm bins
customized to meet storage requirements and budgets of smallholders. These
innovations when backed up by investment from venture capital firms and large
companies have the potential to yield high social and economic returns.
In recent years a large number of papers have
been published focusing on PHLs. Despite all that has been said about food wastage,
there is now a clear need for concerted actions by different stakeholders to
turn words into results. Only by adding value across the food chain can
governments and businesses ensure profit maximization for farmers and
sustainable food security for all.
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