Reducing On-Farm Food Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
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Agriculture and Food Systems (October 2014). Agriculture Ministers also expressed their strong
support to global efforts to ensure food security and agreed on the importance of establishing
economically, socially and environmentally sustainable food systems. First, they underlined the
importance of food losses and waste as a global problem with approximately US$ 1 trillion is
spent each year to produce lost or wasted food. Second, they decided to set up a G20 platform to
prepare a common framework to measure food losses and waste with a view to reduce food
losses and waste. Third and finally, they called for the preparation of a G20 Action Plan on Food
Security and Sustainable Food Systems which will be submitted to Leaders for their
endorsement in Antalya Summit.
Through Feed the Future, USAID funds many Innovation Labs with a focus in the OIC member
countries, each targeting a different crop or issue related to improved food production or
reduced food losses, mostly along a specific value chain. Each Innovation Lab focuses on several
countries, including one or more OIC Member Countries, and provides funding for research,
extension and education for the focus countries in specific topic areas. Some of the Innovation
Labs focus on a specific crop, while others on a technology or best practice, covering the entire
range of production, postharvest handling and marketing. Climate resilient production is one of
the major aims of the programme.
One example of a Feed the Future funded project is in Uganda. As a sub-contractor to UC Davis,
WFLO is providing assistance in postharvest training and capacity building activities under the
Horticulture Innovation Lab. As part of a program designed to increase the capacity of small
holder farmer groups in the Nkokonjeru region of Uganda in the production, postharvest
handling and marketing of vegetables, commodity systems assessments have been conducted
for tomatoes and leafy vegetables, and WFLO provides on-going advice in the development of
training materials on appropriate harvesting, postharvest handling, cooling, storage and
processing practices for Ugandan fruit and vegetable crops. The project has just been extended
for another 3 years.
Another example is in Pakistan. In 2016, a new U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in
Agriculture and Food Security, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, will
link the University of California at Davis with the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The
US$17 million project will make it possible for faculty members and graduate students from
both countries to study and do research at each other’s campuses. The project also is designed
to update curriculum and technical resources at Pakistan’s University of Agriculture, Faisalabad,
in agricultural production, postharvest technology and agricultural extension.
5.1.2. Projects and Programs for the Arab Group (North Africa/Middle East)
In Morocco, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) is launching a new
project in partnership with FAO to develop a national strategy and an action plan to reduce food
losses and waste. FAO’s food loss assessments include the analyses of the causes and solutions