Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
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As discussed in the previous sub-section, the Egyptian government is heavily involved in the
cereal supply chains with the aim of securing national food security and political stability.
However, various studies suggest this involvement is in several ways leading to inefficiencies,
uncertainties and increased losses. Whether and how the private sector in partnership with
the public sector can improve efficiency, increase investment and reduce postharvest losses
without jeopardising national food security and political stability in such an import dependent
country will be a key area of future exploration and experimentation. The government is
already implementing innovative strategies to try and improve efficiency and reduce losses
and corruption in the cereal supply chain (e.g. the baladi bread reforms which have involved a
switch to electronic smart cards for beneficiaries to access their 5 loaves of baladi bread per
day and to determine the bakers subsidies (FAO, 2015), although such changes bring new
challenges with reports of bakers holding and misusing the smart cards of their insufficiently
informed customers and hacking the systems (Wally, 2016; Knecht, 2016), the system may
ultimately move to becoming a cash-based more targeted income transfer system; upgrading
of shouna storage facilities and management systems with improved warehouses and in some
cases more secure and less labour intensive silos of increased storage capacity (e.g.
~30,000t)).
Many methods and tools to assist such cereal postharvest loss reduction approaches already
exist. Whilst significant gains could be made through simply supporting the adoption of
already known improved postharvest management practices and greater interaction and co-
learning between the different actors involved in the cereal supply chain, a longer-term
improved postharvest management strategy is required to drive sustainable and on-going loss
reduction, including incorporation of the topic into agricultural training programmes, capacity
building of extensionists, researchers, traders and store managers etc. for continued
monitoring and responsive action.
4.2. Cassava in Nigeria
This was a desk based study and is based on available published literature.
4.2.1. Status and Importance
Nigeria is the wealthiest country in Africa by GDP and also the most populous at 184 million.
Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava globally and has been since 1991 FAOSTAT)
and this production has been steadily increasing, mainly responding to population growth and
yield .