Reducing Postharvest Losses
In the OIC Member Countries
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total protein intake is only 2.5%. Pulses constitute a commodity group which is describe by
promoters of Feed the Future as being “uniquely positioned to contribute towards sustainably
reducing hunger and poverty whilst simultaneously enhancing nutrition, health and the
environment”. Global output of these crops has been around 40 million tonnes per year for the
past 10 years and is led by India followed by Canada.
Postharvest losses in oilseeds and pulses
There is a dearth of information and data on the level of postharvest losses in oilseeds and
pulses. For instance, the African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS)4 provides a
breadth of data on cereal grains but does not include oilseeds or pulses. A study by the Central
Institute of Postharvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) in India reported in 2015 that
cumulative postharvest losses for oilseeds in general ranges between 3 to 10%5 . There is every
likelihood that the overall figures for SSA will be higher considering that the estimates are
lower than for cereal grains – 5 to 6% in India in contrast with about 13% for SSA (Hodges et
al. 2011). For pulses, Jeswani and Baldev (1990) estimate postharvest losses at very high levels
of between 25-50%.
It has to be noted that even the scant data available tends to focus on one form of postharvest
losses – that is quantitative or physical losses which can occur as a result of rodent or insect
attack or biochemical changes which make the crop hard to cook or process. The losses can
also be qualitative – making it difficult to market the commodities unless there is a steep
discount reflecting the quality of the grain. A survey of literature on postharvest losses in SSA
found that 139 out of 213 (i.e. over 65%) documents reported only losses in the form of edible
mass lost or discarded6. Only 13.1 percent of the documents reviewed during the study
reported quality losses. This is despite that fact that there is considerable evidence suggesting
that quality losses due, for instance, to infestation by mycotoxins can cause sharp decline in
output market prices and may sometimes even lead to loss of access to lucrative export
markets for important oilseeds (Nakhumwa C, 2015).
Access to the evidence generated from studies on postharvest losses can also be difficult.
Affognon et al. (2014) report that over 57% of the research documents they reviewed were
unpublished grey literature held in universities, national research institutions and NGOs in the
form of dissertations, conference proceedings and working papers. Incidentally, the reviewers
considered only 32.7 percent of the reports as being of good or excellent quality – raising
concerns about the quality of evidence generated.
Factors contributing to postharvest losses in oilseeds and pulses
Factors contributing to postharvest losses in the two commodity groups include those listed in
Table 9 below.
4 APHLIS website
5 Jha SN et al. (2015) “Assessment of quantitative harvest and postharvest losses major crops and commodities in India”,
CIPHET, India.
6 Affognon et al. (2014) “Unpacking postharvest losses in Sub Saharan Africa: a meta-analysis” World Development Vol. 66
pp.49-68.