Food loss and waste (FLW) remains a major challenge in Africa’s efforts to address food and nutrition security in sustainable food systems. With economic development for most African countries tied to agriculture, which is dominated by smallholder farmers, more needs to be done to ensure sustainability, equity, and profitability of food systems.
This notion is anchored in Africa’s Agenda 2063, which envisions a Prosperous Africa based on Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development.
Recent reports on the status of postharvest food loss and waste show that the extent of food loss (FL) and food waste (FW) across the globe remains unacceptably high at 14% and 17%, respectively (FAO, 2019; UNEP, 2021).
If the disaggregated figures for (FL) from FAO (2019) and FW from UNEP (2021) are summed up, the total figure of FLW (31%) shows that not much has changed from the 2011 estimate of 30% (FAO, 2011).
However, contrary to earlier reports, food waste which occurs between the retail and consumption stages of the supply chain, contributes more (17%) to the total FLW.
Reducing FLW is a key part of sustainability strategies for increasing food availability without putting additional pressure on the environment and economy to produce more food.
For this reason, the Heads of State of African countries made a commitment under the Malabo Declaration (2014) to halve postharvest losses by 2025.
This commitment is aligned with the sustainable development goal (SDG) 12.3, which targets to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including postharvest losses by 2030.
However, with barely two years to the set target, most African countries are not on track to reduce postharvest losses.
Based on the African Union’s Biennial Review (BR) Report of 2021, out of the 20 Member States that reported data on postharvest losses in priority commodities, 11 were reported to be on track to meet the 2020 milestone of reducing postharvest losses by at least 25%.
Many Member States did not report the required set of data; and hence there was no means to verify progress or lack of it.
Slow progress towards achieving the set targets is partly attributed to the failure to link FLW reduction to other outcomes and benefits for the people and the planet.
FLW reduction is not an end, but it can contribute to the realization of other outcomes such as reduced hunger, better nutrition, better incomes/livelihoods, equitable wealth, lower greenhouse gas emissions, less pressure on the environment, among others.
For instance, the slogan for the United Nations International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW) which is marked annually on 29th September, is ‘Stop food loss and waste. For the people. For the planet’.
To demonstrate the broader objective of FLW reduction, the focus of the 2022 IDAFLW was the contribution of FLW reduction to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Therefore, there was a clear call to action for public and private entities across the food system and consumers to work together to cut FLW to mitigate climate change and support food security and nutrition.
Just as it has been linked to food security, nutrition and climate change mitigation, postharvest management is critical to boosting trade in food and other agricultural commodities at the local, national, regional, and global levels.
This is because trade demands efficient postharvest management and delivery of high-quality products to the target markets.
Commitment 5 under the Malabo (2014) declaration advocates for ‘Boosting Intra-African Trade in Agricultural Commodities and Services.
The African Union’s Biennial Review (BR) Report 2021 scorecard on this commitment is poor, with an overall continental score of 2.44 against a target of 5.0, indicating that the continent is not on track to achieve this target.
Currently, intra-Africa trade stands low at just 14.4% of total African exports. At this pace, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) goal to triple intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services by 2025 is unachievable.
In their efforts to achieve the set target, many Member States have significantly improved the overall trade environment by building infrastructure, reducing the cost of trade, and facilitating travel through visa-free/ visa-on-arrival arrangements.
However, there is a need for additional efforts to ensure that more intra-Africa trade takes place.
The BR report recommends intensifying efforts to enhance and facilitate more trade in agricultural commodities and services among the Member States, especially in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The AfCFTA agreement which was adopted in 2018 and came into force in 2019, is a flagship programme of the African Union Agenda 2063 aimed at creating a single African market for goods and services.
The AfCFTA is facilitated by the free movement of persons, capital, and investment to deepen economic integration, promote, and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality, industrialization, agricultural development, food security, and structural transformation.
Fueled by high population growth, urbanization and income growth, food demand continues to outstrip domestic supply. However, formal intra-regional food trade on the continent remains low even if provisions for informal cross-border flows could double the current levels.
Hence, Africa remains a net importer of agricultural products, with a food import bill of about $50 billion per year. With the continent’s increasing demand for food, the import bill is projected to increase to $90 billion annually by 2030.
The high food import bills can be explained by the low level of industrialization on the continent leading to huge leakages, including high postharvest losses resulting in a huge deficit on the food balance sheet and hence high importation of food on the continent.
Africa (like the rest of the world) is recovering from the impact of COVID-19, which disrupted operations in food supply chains and exposed their vulnerabilities and inefficiencies.
Large volumes of food were lost or wasted as food distribution systems were disrupted due to movement restrictions and poor postharvest infrastructure.
Similarly, the Ukraine-Russia conflict has significantly disrupted food systems worldwide, resulting in sharp increases in commodity prices that have had a significant negative economic impact in many countries.
These and other emerging challenges and threats to the food systems will require transformation driven by the modernization of agricultural production and post-production operations.
Key to this transformation is postharvest management which encompasses all the operations/activities involved in the safe and efficient handling and movement of food commodities from the point of production to the point of consumption locally, regionally, and internationally.
These activities include harvesting, packaging, preservation, drying, storage, value addition (including processing), transport/distribution, quality control logistics, marketing, communication, and other services.
To achieve the desired transformation, it is imperative that agriculture in Africa is viewed beyond just the production of food, feed, and raw materials, most of which are exported and imported back as value-added products from the developed economies.
The transformation of Africa’s agriculture will require a major shift in focus from production and other farm level (less profitable activities) to the more profitable downstream activities.
The downstream activities should be geared towards securing the harvest (what is produced) and the development of value-added products and services that enhance food and nutrition security and promote access to markets while creating more and rewarding employment opportunities.
This vision is anchored in the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Africa Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, which was adopted by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Malabo in June 2014.
According to the FAO’s (2022) report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world, between 702 and 828 million people faced hunger in 2021.
This figure includes 278 million people in Africa, 425 million in Asia and 56.5 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The report also indicates that around 2.3 billion people worldwide lacked access to adequate food in 2021, while almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet.
The report shows that while most of the world’s undernourished people live in Asia, Africa has the highest prevalence.
The factors contributing to hunger, food security and nutrition require a paradigm shift in the food and agriculture sectors at the national, regional, and global levels.
Sustainable and efficient postharvest management to reduce FLW can contribute to the realization of the six dimensions of food and nutrition security, including availability, access, utilization, stability, agency, and sustainability.
Acknowledging the declaration of 2023 as the year of AfCFTA, by the AU, the congress theme recognizes postharvest management as a key catalyst in the intra-African trade.
Postharvest management operations, including storage; transportation/distribution and the associated logistics; preservation; packaging; value addition (including agro-processing), quality control and other operations, are critical and essential for intra-African trade.
Proper postharvest handling ensures better quality and storage life of produce, especially in perishables such as horticulture commodities, milk, meat, and fish, thereby expanding the market.
Enabled by the AfCFTA, it is envisaged that the projected $3 trillion borderless market in Africa could be instrumental in reversing current trends in poverty, inequality and growth on the continent and help place Africa on an inclusive and sustainable growth path.
Curled from the concept note of 4th All Africa Postharvest Congress and Exhibition
