Reducing On-Farm Food Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
11
Question 1 inquired about the perceived general level of food losses for each food group, as
compared to FAO global estimates. Key informants were not expected to provide anything more
than their perception of whether losses for each of the food groups were very low, low,
moderate, high, or very high. Percentages were included to give them an idea of what might be
considered low or very high. For analysis purposes, ratings were rounded to the nearest whole
number or midpoint, where 1.5 = 5%, 2.5 = 10%, 3.5 = 30% and 4.5 = 50% losses.
Question 2 provided a list of 18 potential causes and sources of losses based on the literature
reviews and consultant experience, and key informants were asked to check the most important
causes or sources of food losses in their country for each type of food. The majority of the line
items provided (11) were on-farm causes, but additional potential causes were listed to enable
the calculation of the relative importance of on-farm causes of losses.
Question 3 asked key informants to rate their estimation of the level of on-farm food losses for
various food groups in their country. On-farm losses were categorized into three broad groups
as production, harvesting and on-farm handling, and the ratings of individual key informants
were averaged for each country.
Question 4 requested whether the informant was aware of any activities or projects aimed at
reducing food losses in the respective country. PEF and WFLO followed up via email and
LinkedIn with any key informant who indicated that there were food loss reduction projects or
activities active in their country, and interviewed them regarding specifics related to on-farm
loss reduction.
1.2.3 Case Studies
The countries, crops and foods that were selected as the focus for eight case studies provide a
more detailed look at the levels and causes of on-farm losses of key crops and animal-based
foods in the OIC Member Countries. The case studies cover the period of time from production,
including any pre-harvest factors that may lead directly to losses, to harvesting and handling on
the farm until farm gate. Farm gate refers to transport from the farm and/or sale to a buyer who
takes responsibility for the crop. Annex B provides a series of tables of the top most produced
crops and livestock (in tonnes per annum) and the types of fisheries for each of the 57 OIC
Member Countries, based on FAOSTAT data for 2013.
A wealth of information exists for the African Group, where the major cereals are maize, millet,
rice and sorghum. Roots and tubers are also of primary importance, with high production of
cassava, sweet potatoes, yams and other root crops, such as cocoyam, taro, and dasheen.
Additional major crops include bananas, plantains, cowpeas, groundnuts and oil palm fruits.
To further examine the Cereals food group, a case study of maize in Uganda was selected, since
maize is one of the top crops, with 900 million metric tonnes (MT) produced worldwide in
2013/2014 as per the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) references on grains