Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
152
Financial services
A key, but largely unmeasured, factor that can cause or exacerbate postharvest losses is
finance. In most commodities analysed, the availability of capital to a) clear the market of
product that is deteriorating and b) provide infrastructure to support (a) such as refrigeration,
storage and processing equipment, was seen as an important postharvest loss cause.
Recommendation 5: To work with financial service providers to investigate the possibility
of developing specific postharvest loss reduction instruments.
The agency of agribusiness
Several examples emerged from this analysis of agribusinesses who were keen to engage in
addressing postharvest losses beyond their factory gates, but who were uncertain how to start
such a process. By facilitating the role of key agribusinesses in postharvest loss reduction, OIC
Member Countries could leverage significant additional resources from the private sector.
Recommendation 6: OIC Member Countries should consider developing projects that
specifically engage private sector agribusiness actors in identifying and reducing
postharvest losses either backwards, within their own supply chains or forwards, among
consumers of their products. A challenge fund would be a good way to support such
initiatives.
Recommendation 7: OIC Member Countries should agree to consistently approach
postharvest loss analysis and subsequent actions with gender differentiation in mind and to
consider groups in society who may not benefit from losses reduction interventions.
Recommendation 8: A competition to develop postharvest loss reduction ICTs could have a
disproportionately high impact to cost ratio in OIC Member Countries.
Recommendation 9: Close scrutiny by analysis of policy makers of by-products, particularly
where high volumes can be achieved, can result in strategic investment opportunities for
by-product upgrading and reduced postharvest losses.
Recommendation 10: If postharvest losses are to be addressed, a system of measuring
them at a strategic level should be considered and promoted to national agricultural
statistics bodies.
6.2. Towards a Policy Framework for Reducing Postharvest Losses at the
National Level in OIC Member Countries
A challenge for policy maker in many OIC countries is that for postharvest losses, they are
generally more complex than pre-harvest losses due to the greater diversity of products and
end uses and markets that the products are directed at. Policy makers may be able to
prioritise which commodity groups and value chains to focus resources on using the following
policy strategy for postharvest loses by identifying the following:
a) Which commodity food group is the most important in terms of economic contribution
to the national economy?
b) Which commodity food group is the most important in terms of national consumption?
c) Which commodity food group is the most important to the nutrition of specific
vulnerable groups?