Reducing On-Farm Food Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
6
1 . CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ON-FARM FOOD LOSSES
Food losses and waste occur in different stages in the supply chain with different categorizations
by different organizations. As such, they have been defined in various fashions by a variety of
agencies. The differing definitions and examples of losses at the stages of the food supply chain
are described in Table 1.1 as are the varying definitions of food losses in current use and under
development. Early definitions found in the literature are generally unclear, overlapping in
some cases and using many different terms to describe the same food supply chain stages.
Definitions are still changing with each new publication, and a recent High Level Panel of Experts
on Food Security and Nutrition report on food losses and waste stated, “Different definitions,
different metrics, different measurement protocols and the lack of standards for data collection
adapted to different countries and products, makes it difficult – and sometimes impossible – to
compare studies, systems and countries” (HLPE, 2014).
1.1 Definitions
According to Lipinski et al (2013) “food loss” refers to food that spills, spoils, suffers a reduction
in quality such as bruising or wilting, or otherwise gets lost before it reaches the consumer. Food
loss is the unintended result of an agricultural process or technical limitation in handling,
storage, infrastructure, packaging, or marketing. “Food waste” refers to food that is of good
quality and fit for human consumption but that does not get consumed because it is discarded—
either before or after it spoils.
In many cases, especially in early literature, “postharvest losses” has included on-farm losses
during harvesting, handling and storage losses and the losses due to consumption waste. Their
main distinction was made between food loss and food waste, based on the stage of the food
chain at which the loss or waste of food physically occurs. The HLPE report did not segregate
on-farm losses from any of the other types of food losses. They state only that “food loss”
happens at the earlier stages of food chains, and “food waste” happens at the later consumption
stages, placing the boundary either at retail or the consumer level.
The definitions are still under discussion and further development. The WRI is leading the new
“global food loss and waste protocol” in an attempt to develop universally accepted definitions
and standards for future measurements, but their view is primarily focused on developed food
systems. In 2013, FAO published a definition which specified that food loss can occur starting
from the moment that:
 Crops are ripe in the field, plantation, or orchard;
 Animals are on the farm—in the field, sty, pen, shed, or coop—ready for slaughter;
 Milk has been drawn from the udder; and
 Aquaculture fish are mature in the pond.