FAO Southern Africa
POST HARVEST LOSSES WORKSHOP - March 2016
Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted. These losses are particularly unfortunate in Africa where 220 million people estimated to be undernourished. Climate-induced crop failures — including those caused by the ongoing El Niño phenomenon – have further compounded the situation in the affected parts of Eastern and Southern Africa. This calls for a shift in focus to increase productivity at farm level and improve post-production handling among smallholder farmers.
One such change was initiated by a project funded by the Kingdom of Norway entitled, "Food loss reduction strategy development in favour of smallholder producers in Africa Phase 1". The project brought together, 13 countries as well as experts from the Rome-based UN agencies, regional institutions; African Union, SADC, CCARDESA and development partners including the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
A meeting held in Harare (15 - 17 March) provided the much-needed impetus to identify strategies and practical solutions aimed at reducing food losses and agree on practical actions needed to develop a programme for the reduction of food losses. The meeting included a field trip to Harare’s biggest vegetable market run by the local authority as well as a visit to a privately owned market to further understand how to plug the losses.
POST HARVEST LOSSES WORKSHOP - March 2016
Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted. These losses are particularly unfortunate in Africa where 220 million people estimated to be undernourished. Climate-induced crop failures — including those caused by the ongoing El Niño phenomenon – have further compounded the situation in the affected parts of Eastern and Southern Africa. This calls for a shift in focus to increase productivity at farm level and improve post-production handling among smallholder farmers.
One such change was initiated by a project funded by the Kingdom of Norway entitled, "Food loss reduction strategy development in favour of smallholder producers in Africa Phase 1". The project brought together, 13 countries as well as experts from the Rome-based UN agencies, regional institutions; African Union, SADC, CCARDESA and development partners including the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
A meeting held in Harare (15 - 17 March) provided the much-needed impetus to identify strategies and practical solutions aimed at reducing food losses and agree on practical actions needed to develop a programme for the reduction of food losses. The meeting included a field trip to Harare’s biggest vegetable market run by the local authority as well as a visit to a privately owned market to further understand how to plug the losses.