Why are we interested

about

Postharvest losses

Definitions of food loss V/S food

waste

Food losses:

The decrease in the availability of food apt for human consumption along the

entire food supply chain, at production, post-harvest, storage and

transportation segments levels.

Food waste

The losses arising from the decision to throw away food that is still edible;

it reflects behaviour mainly at the level of wholesale and retail sales, in

prepared food services, and at the consumer level.

Why are we concerned

about post-harvest

loss?

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

estimates that 6% of global food losses occur in Latin America and

the Caribbean.

Each year, the region loses and/or wastes about 15% of its

available food.

In Latin America and the Caribbean

Losses

About 28% in the production segment,

17% during marketing and distribution,

22% during handling and storage, and the remaining

6% during processing

Waste

About 28% of food losses occur in the consumer segment,

Why are we

concerned about post-

harvest loss?

Losses vary throughout the world

Dependent on specific conditions and local situation in a

country.

Several studies: Quantities of food losses and food waste

assessed in many countries of the world.

Literature review, statistical data, and stakeholder

interviews.

Food losses and waste

together

affect the sustainability of food systems,

reduce local and global food availability,

cause food producers to lose income,

raise food prices to consumers and impair their health

and nutritional status, and

destroy the environment due to the unsustainable use of

natural resources.

Food can be

more available if

we increased

food production

? The food problem had

been solved ?

But around 2008…

droughts in key parts of the world,

low global grain reserves

Food prices increased

Food availability will have to be

increased dramatically

The food supply will have to be increased

dramatically to feed a global population

that will approach 10 billion by 2050.

What is increase production?

Expansion of cultivated lands

Land is a limited resource

10% remaining of un-utilized arable land.

Genetic improvement

slow for key crops

application is controversial

Fertilizer

Nitrogen fertilizer requires fossil fuels for its

production

Phosphorus is rare

Environmental challenges associated with

inappropriate use of fertilizers.

What is increase

production?

Water

Usage levels of water for crop irrigation are not

sustainable in many parts of the world.

Adequate and uncontaminated water--greatest

challenge

What is increase

production?

The research and educational institutions around the

world have been very significantly diminished by

underfunding

There is a shortage of qualified agricultural scientists

Clearly, increase production continues to be valuable

but may be insufficient to meet the needs of 2050.

Increase production is not

enough any more?

In some sense the real issue

isn’t how much is produced but

how much is actually available

for consumption.

1/3 of the world's food supply is lost between the point of

harvest and consumption due to spoilage, deterioration,

insect damage and contamination.

An enormous wastage of the resources utilized to produce

this food-- such as seed, fertilizer, water, land resources

and perhaps most importantly- human effort.

How much of the food produced is

reaching the consumer

Increase foodstuffs for consumption will have to come

through reduction in losses between the field and the

consumer.

Harvest at the proper time,

reduce moisture to the level compatible with long-term

storage,

prevent mold, insect and rodent damage

transport safely.

Simple you might say but

incredibly difficult to fully

implement in many

circumstances.

Today we are convinced that there are ways to address the

issue within the context of available resources and social

and cultural practices that exist in any part of the world.

Magic will not happen, there is no single, universal solution

But progress can be made.

How much of the food produced is

reaching the consumer

This training will help you

record information on the specific

Value Chains (VC),

identify the problems and

their main causes and

will try to find solutions