Food that ‘disappears’ from the food chain after harvest owing to spoilage could feed an estimated 48 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. A project by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the African Union and The Rockefeller Foundation aims to help countries drastically reduce these post-harvest losses by 2030 through strengthening policies and strategies.
“Our work with The Rockefeller Foundation and the African Union to make food supply chains more efficient will benefit the livelihoods of family farmers in Africa and mean less pressure on the environment, which both contribute to our vision of a Zero Hunger world,” said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva.
Governments around the world have committed to halving food loss and waste by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals. Under the Malabo Declaration in 2014, African Union member countries set themselves the ambitious target of halving post-harvest losses by 2025.
“Much more progress remains ahead us if we are to achieve our ambitious goal of reaching zero hunger in just 12 years,” said Rafael Flor, the Director of The Rockefeller Foundation’s YieldWise initiative, a $130 million investment to reduce food loss and waste. “There is greater awareness today among governments and the private sector that reducing food loss and waste will lead to greater food security. Now we must translate that awareness to action among policymakers and agribusinesses,” he said.
“Our objective is to support the African Union and its institutions to develop policy and to design strategic solutions to address food loss and waste with impact at all levels, from policy, capacity building, and research, and at the value chain level with farmers, producers and retailers,” said Cephas Taruvinga, FAO’s Chief Technical Advisor for the project.
Saving food after harvest
The 18-month project began in February 2017 and is focusing on post-harvest loss of staple crops in the pilot countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as policy support to the African Union Commission.
Post-harvest loss refers to a reduction in the quality and quantity of food – such as cereals, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, and milk – between the farm and the point of sale before it can be eaten.
In Africa, the vast majority of food loss happens between harvest and the point of sale – very little is wasted by consumers after purchase.
Halving such losses across Africa requires a holistic, systemic approach which is why the project supports the strengthening of linkages in the food production value chain, improved markets and infrastructure, better technical solutions and supporting governments to provide enabling policies and investments.
“What we want to do is look at not only the technical interventions but also how do you build capacity within existing systems that we have in place. And that’s why the collaboration with FAO and the African Union is very important,” Flor said.
Partners for strategic solutions
Policy and strategic solutions are being developed and implemented at the African Union and in the pilot countries. Assessments of the extent of post-harvest losses for each country’s priority crops are being carried out, including in the maize, milk and tomato supply chains, and technical working groups have been formed to develop national strategies and coordinate post-harvest activities in Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Through the project, over 100 stakeholders and technical staff have been trained in post-harvest management, and, in Tanzania, the FAO Food Loss Analysis Methodology has been incorporated into tertiary training programmes. A Monitoring & Evaluation framework has also been developed to track progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Malabo targets.
Original source: FAO
Published on 21 June 2018
