Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
145
5.4.1. Global and Regional Resources
This has already been discussed in the COMCEC on-farm losses study which also discussed
resources for postharvest losses. Recent initiatives in addition to those mentioned include the
Bill and Melinda Gates Funded APHLIS PLUS project and the EC FP7 Gains for losses from Root
and Tuber Crops.
We anticipate that studies and actions targeting postharvest losses will continue to be a funded
to explore research and extension to reduce food losses and waste along food value chains.
APHLIS PLUS is extending the concept of postharvest losses to include nutrition and economic
losses which to date have not been systematically examined. In the following sections, staple
foods such as cereals, roots, tubers and fruit, and vegetables continue to currently receive the
bulk of the funding. Only a handful are exploring economic losses (EC FP7 Gains from Looses
of Root and Tuber Crops and APHLIS PLUS) but more projects of this type are anticipated.
Individual OIC Member Countries are increasingly part of global and regional alliances. They
have access to the CGIAR system and their many research institutes.
5.4.2. International Projects and Programs
A number of international project and programs have been recently funded by the UN, Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller, European Union and through the CGIAR system via a
basket of international donors.
The majority of projects, programmes and studies on postharvest food losses have so far
focussed on cereals and to a lesser extent fruit and vegetables and root and tuber crops. The
focus has been mainly on measuring physical losses and to a less extent economic losses.
Recently the APHLIS PLUS project will widen the scope from physical losses to economic and
nutrition losses. The EU FP7 Gains from losses on root and tuber crops clearly showed that
economic losses are more critical than physical losses whereby two value chains for cassava
can have similar levels of physical losses but massively different economic losses depending on
whether the losses occur at the farm end or at the consumer end (Naziri et al, 2015). We
expect nutritional losses to equally critical.
Projects and Programs - Cereals
reports projects mentioned by participants in the online survey. The authors have not
confirmed the validity of the projects and this list may omit many other projects.
Table 74: Projects on cereals
Name of project Target
crop/
product
Name of lead
organisation
Country Starting
year
Website
Postharvest management in
Sub-Saharan Africa
Cereals
and pulses
HelvetasSwissI
ntercooperatai
on
Benin,
Mozambiq
ue
2013
Market Linkage Project Grains Carana
Corporation
Malawi 2009 -
2011
bsaharanafrica/42
3-market-linkages-
initiative